General Electric Company

R Paul Chiu

Ariel C Jacala

Norman Arnold Turnquist

Christopher Edward Wolfe

Bharat S Bagepalli

Osman Saim Dinc

Robert Harold Cromer

Anthony Holmes Furman

David Robert Skinner

Victor H Correia

Gregory Allan Crum

Fred W Staub

Francisco J Cunha

Paul Thomas Marks

Theresa A Brown

Michael Adelbert Sullivan

Myron C Muth

Richard Mallory Davis

Rudolf Matthias Markytan

Brush seals are retrofitted into existing turbine labyrinth seal rings to create a fail-safe seal design at locations wherever labyrinth seals are currently used, including interstage shaft seals, rotor end seals, bucket (or blade) tip seals and spill strips. Brush seals, per se, when used in place of labyrinth seals, can result in considerable span reductions of steam turbines, or machines with more turbine stages for a given span. Application to end packings results in the potential elimination of gland sealing/exhauster systems. Brush seal life can be improved by retrofitting brush segments to labyrinth seal segments that are either spring-backed, or use pressure loads to obtain design clearances only after steady state operating conditions are achieved. The brush seals are provided with backing plates shaped like labyrinth teeth, resulting in a fail-safe design. Also, the use of existing labyrinth teeth as bristle backing plates results in a brush seal with diminished susceptibility to hysteresis when compared to conventional brush seal designs. Low friction coatings can also be used to reduce brush seal hysteresis. Incorporation of brush seals in labyrinth seal rings that are either spring-backed or held in place by pressure forces results in extremely low brush seal wear.

Brush seals and combined labyrinth and brush seals for rotary machines

In a gas turbine bucket having a shank portion, a radial tip portion and an airfoil having leading and trailing edges and pressure and suction surfaces, and an internal fluid cooling circuit, an improvement wherein the internal fluid cooling circuit has a serpentine configuration including plural radial outflow passages and plural radial inflow passages. The radial outflow passages, in one example, are shaped to have aspect ratios of about 3.3 to 1 and Buoyancy Numbers of &lt;0.15 or &gt;0.80. A method of determining a configuration for steam cooling passages for a bucket stage in a gas turbine is also provided which includes, in one example, the steps of:

Closed circuit steam cooled bucket

The steam impingement cooling and retrieval system for turbine shrouds includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced housings about a turbine shroud, each housing being divided by an impingement plate defining first and second chambers on opposite sides of the housing. Steam supplied into a first chamber passes through a plurality of apertures formed in the impingement plate into the second chamber for impingement cooling of the shroud surface forming the opposite wall of the housing. Post-impingement steam passes from the compartment into a manifold for flow through and exhaust passage. In one form, a plurality of compartments are formed in the impingement plate. A first set of the plurality of compartments include through apertures for delivering steam from the first chamber into the second chamber. The second set of compartments communicates only with the second chamber and an exhaust passage whereby post-impingement steam passes from the second chamber through apertures of the impingement plate into the second set of compartments for flow to a manifold at the end wall of the housing for delivery to the exhaust passage.

Impingement cooling and cooling medium retrieval system for turbine

The bucket 10 of a gas turbine includes first and second steam supply passageways 32 and 34 for directing cooling steam radially outwardly along the bucket. Steam return passageways 40, 42 and 44 lie adjacent the trailing edge for returning cooling steam to its source. A shroud is disposed at the bucket tip and has cross-over passages communicating the supply steam from the first and second passageways to the fifth, third and fourth passageways, respectively.

Closed-circuit steam-cooled bucket with integrally cooled shroud for gas

The second-stage nozzles include a plurality of stator vanes 10 having first, second, third, fourth and fifth passages 40, 42, 44, 46 and 48, respectively, for cooling the vanes. The first and fourth passages have a steam inlet along an outer sidewall 14 and a junction box 70 along the inner sidewall 12 for returning steam to the second passage 42. The third passage 44 has a contour corresponding to the contour of the leading edge and impingement steam is directed through openings in a partition 52, cooling the leading edge. Steam flows from the third passage 44 directly into the return passage 42 and also into a channel 64 for cooling the inner sidewall 12. Cooling air flows through fifth passage 48 radially inwardly through the inner sidewall 12 into a cavity 72 in the diaphragm 32 for flow axially outwardly into wheel cavities 86 and 88.

Steam and air cooling for stator stage of a turbine

An apparatus and method for varying the cooling air flow within a gas turbine bucket tip. Each turbomachinery blade contains at least one radial cooling passage located between a hollow interior and an outside of the blade. A transversely-oriented elongate channel connects at least one of the cooling passages with the trailing edge of the blade. Secured within the transversely-oriented channel is a pin which extends into at least one of the radial cooling passages to partially obstruct the cooling fluid flow depending on the needs of the design.

Method and apparatus for cooling air flow at gas turbine bucket trailing

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Scotia, NY, United States of America

R Paul Chiu