General Electric Company

Ralph A Kirkpatrick

Gerard P Kroger

Larry W Plemmons

Harold P Rieck, Jr

Omer D Erdmann

Robert Andrew Peck

Kenneth Willgoose

William C Oakes

A swivel flange seal joint assembly which includes a tube having an integral, enlarged ferrule and swivel flange is described. The ferrule is enlarged and includes oversized fastener openings configured to allow circumferential alignment between the swivel flange and openings in a mating surface. The assembly also includes a gasket having openings, and the gasket is positioned between the ferrule and the mating surface so that a seal is formed between when the fasteners which extend through the flange, ferrule, gasket and mating surface openings are tightened.

Bolted seal joint assembly

A gas turbine engine stator and method are disclosed which are effective for controlling non-axisymmetric radial running clearance between a stator flowpath surface and rotor blade tips. A coating of preselected thermal conductivity is predeterminedly disposed along the circumference of the stator to control circumferential thermally induced distortion and thereby control non-axisymmetric radial running clearance. In preferred embodiments of the invention, a high thermal conductivity coating may be applied to an annular flange for reducing temperature gradients therein. In another embodiment of the present invention, low thermal conductivity coatings may be applied to a stator to preferentially insulate the stator for reducing circumferential thermal distortion.

Stator having selectively applied thermal conductivity coating

An improved blade mounting arrangement for a gas turbine engine with a turbine and an annular flowpath therethrough is disclosed. The improvement comprises a one-piece outer casing and a one-piece inner casing bounding the flowpath. The outer casing has a plurality of circumferential recesses disposed therein with each of the recesses having first and second axially opposite circumferential slots. A plurality of first turbine blades, each with axially facing tangs on a mounting platform, mate with the slots in the outer casing recess. The inner casing has a plurality of recesses disposed therein, each of the recesses including a forward circumferential slot and concentric aft radially outer and radially inner circumferential slots. A plurality of second turbine blades, each with forward and aft axially facing tangs on a mounting platform, mate with respective ones of forward slot and radially outer slot in the inner casing recess.

Turbomachinery blade mounting arrangement

A removable disk for an annular casing in a turbomachine is disclosed. The disk is coaxial with the casing and slideably engagable with the casing in ambient conditions. The disk radially contacts the casing during operation so as to provide increased stiffness to the casing.

Removable stiffening disk

The present invention discloses a turbomachinery blading configuration. The configuration includes a circumferential recess in a blade support structure and a plurality of blades. Each blade has a platform for mounting the blade within the recess. Each platform includes oppositely directed, generally circumferentially facing edges, each edge having a first and second axial surfaces separated by a recess. The surfaces contact matching surfaces on adjacent blades thereby determining predictable load paths for tangential and twisting moment reaction forces acting on the blades.

Blade platform

A device is provided for efficiently directing nonrotating cooling air into a rotating turbine rotor. The device employs a nozzle to accelerate the cooling air in the direction of rotor rotation. A diffuser-deswirler then directs this air, with curved and expanding flow passages, into corresponding holes in the turbine rotor. With these elements, the device directs the cooling air into the rotating rotor section without significant pressure losses and with a lower resultant cooling air temperature.

Growing community of inventors

Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Ralph A Kirkpatrick