General Electric Company

Philip W Dietz

Charles E Steckle

Robert J Corsmeier

Andrew J Lammas

John Robert Staker

Kenneth Willgoose

A compressor rotor includes coaxially adjoining disks having corresponding rows of rotor blades. A forward shaft is affixed to a forward disk and includes an annular seat for being mounted in a bearing to support the rotor at its forward end. A blisk coaxially surrounds the shaft axially between the seat and forward disk, and is removably fixedly joined piggyback to the shaft. In a repair method, the blisk may be removed from the compressor rotor without requiring teardown of the compressor rotor itself.

Piggyback rotor blisk

A generally wedge-shaped vibration damper for rotor blades of a gas turbine engine has a pair of scrubbing surfaces and is loosely retained in a pocket incorporated in the rotor blade platform. The pocket is partly defined by a plurality of surfaces which orient the damper so that it is slidably displaceable and rotatable only in a predetermined plane. During rotation of the rotor disk, the damper of one rotor blade is displaced in a plane transverse to the rotor axis of rotation by centrifugal forces to a position at which one scrubbing surface of the damper abuts a side surface of the platform of the adjacent rotor blade and the other scrubbing surface abuts an inner surface of the platform of the rotor blade in which the damper is inserted. The scrubbing action of the damper serves to damp vibratory motion in the platforms of both blades.

Turbine blade damper

A generally wedge-shaped vibration damper for rotor blades of a gas turbine engine has a pair of scrubbing surfaces and is loosely retained in a pocket incorporated in the root cavity. The pocket is partly defined by a plurality of surfaces which orient the damper so that it is slidably displaceable and rotatable only in a predetermined plane. The retaining device is a hook-shaped sheet metal clip which is attached to the damping member. The clip has a resilient curved portion which is compressed to pass through a throat by which the pocket communicates with the remainder of the root cavity. When the curved portion of the clip clears the throat, it springs back to its uncompressed state in which the height of the curved portion is greater than the height of the throat, whereby the damping member is retained in the pocket.

Retention device for turbine blade damper

A vibration damper for rotor blades of a gas turbine engine has a shaft and a contact head connected thereto. The shaft is slidably inserted in a cylindrical recess incorporated in the rotor blade platform. During rotation of the rotor disk, the shaft of the damping member slides along the shaft axis, whereby the damping member is moved at least in the radial and circumferential directions by centrifugal forces. The contact head of the damping member of one rotor blade finally bears against the platform portion of an adjacent rotor blade, serving to damp vibratory motion of both blades.

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Philip W Dietz