General Electric Company

Scott Matthew Sparks

Joseph Anthony Weber

Thomas Bradley Beddard

Peter Gaines Cleveland

James Bernard Fehlberg

A turbine engine is provided and includes an aerodynamic element disposed to aerodynamically interact with a flow of working fluid and contour features disposed on the aerodynamic element in alignment in at least one dimension. The contour features are proximate to one another and configured to encourage counter-rotating vortex flow generation oriented substantially perpendicularly with respect to a main flow direction along the aerodynamic element.

Turbine engine and aerodynamic element of turbine engine

A system including an airfoil portion of an unshrouded turbine bucket, which includes a pressure-side surface and suction-side surface each extending from a root surface to a tip surface and joined at a leading edge and a trailing edge, the pressure-side surface having a generally concave shape and the suction-side surface having a generally convex shape; the airfoil portion having an increasing stagger angle in a span-wise direction from the root surface to the tip surface and an increasingly loaded suction-side surface as the suction-side surface approaches the tip surface and the tip surface approaches the leading edge, the airfoil portion having a resultant lean in a direction of the suction-side surface as the leading edge approaches the tip surface, and the pressure-side surface and the suction-side surface each having a locally reduced or reversed curvature in a direction of the pressure-side surface at their intersection with the tip surface.

System and method for reducing bucket tip losses

First stage turbine buckets have airfoil profiles substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth Table I wherein X and Y values are in inches and the Z values are non-dimensional values from 0.05 span to 0.95 span convertible to Z distances in inches by multiplying the Z values by the height of the airfoil in inches. The X and Y values are distances which, when connected by smooth continuing arcs, define airfoil profile sections at each distance Z. The profile sections at each distance Z are joined smoothly to one another to form a complete airfoil shape. The X, Y and Z distances may be scalable as a function of the same constant or number to provide a scaled up or scaled down airfoil section for the bucket. The nominal airfoil given by the X, Y and Z distances lies within an envelope of &plusmn;0.150 inches in directions normal to the surface of the airfoil.

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Simpsonville, SC, United States of America

Scott Matthew Sparks