General Electric Company

Randall Charles Bauer

George A Durgin

Jonathon P Clarke

D Keith Patrick

Ching-Pang Lee

Gregory Terrence Garay

Kevin Weston McMahan

Thomas Joseph Kelly

Matthew Mark Weaver

Bruce Clark Busbey

Robert Joseph Albers

John Christopher Brauer

Mark Edward Stegemiller

Stephen Mark Molter

Charles E Steckle

Kenneth Martin Lewis

Alan L Webb

Steve R Fledderjohn

James Robert Bailey

Christopher Michael Ceglio

David G Hendley

Scott Joseph Schmid

Keith D Patrick

A turbine airfoil for a gas turbine engine including an outer peripheral wall having an external surface, the outer peripheral wall enclosing an interior space and including a concave pressure sidewall and a convex suction sidewall joined together at a leading edge and at a trailing edge; wherein the outer peripheral wall has a varying wall thickness which incorporates a locally-thickened wall portion; and a film cooling hole having a shaped diffuser exit passing through the outer peripheral wall within the locally-thickened wall portion.

Turbine airfoil with local wall thickness control

A method for manufacturing a turbine damper by a metal injection molding process is disclosed. The damper includes a base section and a wire section, and is formed of a nickel-base or cobalt base superalloy.

Monolithic and bi-metallic turbine blade dampers and method of manufacture

A turbine blade damper includes an outer part for damping vibration of the blade airfoil and a supporting inner part. The two parts are formed of different materials for the different performance required thereof in the blade.

Bimaterial turbine blade damper

A turbine rotor blade includes a hollow airfoil joined to a platform and dovetail. A main flow channel extends longitudinally in span through the blade and is bound chordally by opposite partitions transversely bridging opposite sidewalls of the airfoil. A damper rib and transversely opposite damper pad are arranged together in a plurality of pairs spaced longitudinally apart in the airfoil and chordally positioned intermediate to the partitions to provide unobstructed forward and aft portions of the flow channel for channeling a coolant therethrough. The damper ribs and pads are configured to receive a wire damper through the channel to locally dampen vibration while minimizing obstruction of the coolant flow therethrough.

Damper configured turbine blade

A support arrangement for a brush seal positioned between a stationary and a rotatable component of a turbomachine. The brush seal has a downstream backing plate that includes an axially-extending lip adjacent its radially outermost end to minimize axial deflection of the seal as a result of a gas pressure differential acting across the seal.

Brush seal support

A modulated flow transfer apparatus for transferring a fluid flow from a static element to a rotor of a gas turbine engine has an annular static inducer for accelerating the fluid flow in a substantially circumferential direction. The inducer has an annular row of identical first and second flow passages with first and second inlets respectively and outlets. First and second flow means direct first and second portions of the flow to the first and second flow passages, respectively. A valve is used for selectively modulating the second portion of the flow which together with a controller may be used for selectively preventing the second portion of flow from flowing through the second flow passages during a first cruise of engine operation and allowing substantially unrestricted flow therethrough during a takeoff mode of engine operation. The second flow means preferably includes an inducer manifold disposed between the valve and the second inlets. Exhaust ducts connect corresponding ones of the second inlets to the inducer manifold. The inducer manifold is preferably disposed inside a plenum used to feed cooling air to the first passages.

Modulated turbine cooling system

A seal assembly positioned between forward and aft rotor stages of a turbine separates a forward cavity and an aft cavity on each side thereof. The seal assembly includes a seal body connected to a platform portion of a stator nozzle located between the forward and aft rotor stages, wherein an inner seal cavity in flow communication with an insert in the stator nozzle is formed therebetween. A static seal member is arranged in sealing relationship with a rotary toothed member between the forward and aft cavities, with the static seal member being connected to the seal body. An intermediate member is positioned between the seal body and the static seal member to define a plenum therebetween in flow communication with the inner seal cavity, the intermediate member having a plurality of angled passages formed therein in which a first end thereof is in flow communication with the plenum and a second end thereof is in flow communication with the aft cavity. Accordingly, air entering the stator nozzle insert flows into the inner seal cavity and then into the plenum so that it exits through the angled passages into the aft cavity at an angle with respect to an axis of rotation of the aft rotor stage. In this way, such air will acquire a tangential velocity component in the direction of rotation of the aft rotor stage.

Interstage seal assembly for a turbine

A cooling system for use in a rotor assembly of a gas turbine engine, the rotor assembly including an annular disk rotatable about a centerline axis of the engine and a plurality of blades mounted on the disk. The disk includes alternating posts and slots, with each slot receiving a blade dovetail. The cooling system comprises an axially extending plenum disposed inward of each blade dovetail and a thermal isolation chamber, formed by a seal body, disposed over the outer surface of each disk post. An annular forward blade retainer is attached to the disk and sealed with adjacent structures via inner and outer seals. Alternative structures are disclosed for diverting the cooling air from the plenums, past the inner and outer seals, and into the isolation chambers during operation of the engine so as to cool each disk point, without compromising the structural integrity of the forward blade retainer. The cooling system further includes an aft retention member forming in part an annular plenum in fluid flow communication with each of the axially extending plenums. The annular plenum is further in fluid flow communication with a plurality of passages formed between disk post and blade dovetail relief surfaces, with air flowing through these passages effective for further cooling the disk posts. The air flowing through at least a portion of these passages is subsequently directed to the thermal is isolation chambers.

Rotor disk post cooling system

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Loveland, OH, United States of America

Randall Charles Bauer