COOLING STRUCTURE FOR TURBINE SHAFTS
Patent Information
- Application Number
- DE112018001266
- Authority / Receiving Office
- DE · DE
- Patent Type
- Patents
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2017-03-10
- Filing Date
- 2018-03-06
- Publication Date
- 2025-02-06
- Estimated Expiration
- 2038-03-06
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Abstract
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION(Field of Invention)The present invention relates to a structure for cooling a turbine blade of a gas turbine engine, that is, a stator blade and a rotor blade in a turbine.(Description of Prior Art)A turbine forming part of a gas turbine engine is disposed downstream of a combustor, and a high temperature gas burned in the combustor is supplied to the turbine. Thus, the turbine is exposed to high temperatures during operation of the gas turbine engine. Therefore, it is necessary to cool a stator blade and a rotor blade of the turbine. As a structure for cooling such a turbine blade, it is known to introduce a part of air compressed by a compressor into a cooling passage formed in the blade and to cool the turbine blade using the compressed air as a cooling medium (for example, see Patent Document 1).In the case where a part of the compressed air is used for cooling the turbine blade, it is not necessary to introduce a cooling medium from the outside, which has an advantage that the cooling structure can be simplified. However, when a large amount of air compressed by the compressor is used for cooling, this results in a decrease in engine efficiency. Thus, it is necessary to efficiently perform cooling with as little air as possible. As a structure for cooling a turbine blade with high efficiency, the use of a so-called mesh structure body formed by combining a plurality of ribs into a mesh pattern is proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In the mesh structure body, a cooling medium impinges against the fins constituting the mesh structure body to generate a swirling flow, thereby enhancing cooling efficiency.A structure has been proposed for discharging a cooling medium in a turbine blade through a rear edge portion of the blade, thereby causing a cooling medium to flow along a rear surface of a blade wall on the suction surface side exposed by cutting out a blade wall on the pressure surface side of a rear edge portion of a turbine blade, thereby performing film cooling of the rear surface (see Patent Document 2).[Related Publication][Patent Document][Patent Document 1] US 5 603 606 A[Patent Document 2] JP 4 957 131 B2U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,606 A describes a turbine cooling system for supplying cooling air for gas turbines.JP 4957131 B2 discloses cooling structures for components of a turbine.US 2016 / 0003549 A1 discloses a cooling structure for turbine blades.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONHowever, in the case where film cooling of the rear edge portion of the blade is combined with the mesh structure body as described in Patent Document 2, a strong swirling flow coming from the mesh structure body is discharged to an exposed wall surface and trapped in an outdoor flowing high-temperature gas. Consequently, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient cooling effect by the film cooling.Therefore, in order to solve the above-described problem of the present invention, it is an object to provide a cooling structure capable of cooling the entire turbine blade with high efficiency by highly efficiently cooling the inner space of the turbine blade by a grid structure body, and also effectively cooling a rear edge portion of a turbine blade by film cooling.To achieve the above-described object, a cooling structure for a turbine blade according to the present invention is a structure for cooling a turbine blade of a turbine driven by high temperature gas, the structure including:a cooling passage formed between a first blade wall of the turbine blade curved to be concave relative to a passage for the high temperature gas and a second blade wall of the turbine blade curved to be convex relative to the passage for the high temperature gas;a plurality of grid structure bodies each including a first set of ribs formed of a plurality of first ribs linearly extending and provided on a wall surface of the first blade wall facing the cooling passage and a second set of ribs formed of a plurality of second ribs linearly extending and provided on a wall surface of the second blade wall facing the cooling passage, the second set of ribs being stacked on the first set of ribs to form a grid pattern;a separator formed between the two lattice structure bodies adjacent to each other and configured to close a passage in each rib set;a cooling medium discharge port provided at a downstream end portion of the cooling passage and configured to discharge the cooling medium to the outside in the cooling passage; andan exposed wall portion in the form of a portion of the second blade wall that extends outward beyond the cooling medium discharge port;wherein at least at respective outlet portions of the two lattice structure bodies adjacent to each other with the separator interposed therebetween, the adjacent two first sets of ribs and the adjacent two second sets of ribs are each inclined relative to the separator in opposite directions.With this configuration, the cooling medium discharged from the grid structure body as a swirling flow and the cooling medium discharged from the adjacent grid structure body and having formed a swirling flow in opposite directions interfere with each other, whereby the swirling flows cancel each other out, and the cooling medium is straightened to flow in a uniform direction and then discharged from the cooling medium discharge port to the exposed wall portion. Accordingly, the high temperature gas and the cooling medium are prevented from being mixed with each other at the exposed wall portion, and a sufficient film cooling effect is achieved. Therefore, both cooling of the inner space of the turbine blade by the mesh structure body and film cooling of the rear edge portion of the turbine blade can be achieved with high efficiency, and thus it is possible to increase the cooling efficiency for the entire turbine blade.In an embodiment of the present invention, at least at the respective outlet portions of the two lattice structure bodies that are adjacent to each other with the separator interposed therebetween, the two first rib sets adjacent to each other and the two second rib sets adjacent to each other are inclined so as to be symmetrical relative to the separator, respectively. With this configuration, swirling currents of the cooling medium discharged from the lattice structure bodies adjacent to each other cancel out more effectively, and thus the film cooling of the rear edge portion of the turbine blade can be performed with high efficiency by the highly uniformly straightened cooling medium.In an embodiment of the present invention, an outlet of each grid structure body may be located at the cooling medium discharge port. With this configuration, after the entire inner space of the cooling passage is effectively cooled by the grid structure bodies, the film cooling of the rear end portion of the turbine blade can be performed by uniformly flowing the cooling medium. Therefore, it is possible to further increase the cooling efficiency of the entire turbine blade.In an embodiment of the present invention, a moving direction of the entire cooling medium may be a chordwise direction of the turbine blade, and the plurality of mesh structure bodies may be arranged to be arranged in a height direction of the turbine blade with the separator interposed therebetween. Since the moving direction of the entire cooling medium is the chord direction, the exposed wall portion can certainly have a sufficient dimension in the height direction of the turbine blade, and thus the cooling efficiency for the entire turbine blade can be further increased.Any combination of at least two constructions disclosed in the appended claims and / or the specification and / or the accompanying drawings must be understood to fall within the scope of the present invention. In particular, any combination of two or more of the appended claims must equally be understood as falling within the scope of the present invention.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSIn any event, the present invention will be more fully understood from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The embodiments and drawings are, however, intended for purposes of illustration and explanation only and are not to be taken as limiting the scope of the invention in any way, the scope being determined by the appended claims. In the accompanying drawings, like reference numerals are used throughout the several views to designate like parts. The following are shown: FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an example of a turbine blade in which a cooling structure according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided; FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view schematically illustrating the turbine blade of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the turbine blade of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a grid structure body in the cooling structure for the turbine blade of FIG. 2 ; FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view schematically illustrating a region around a rear end portion of the turbine blade of FIG. 2 ; and FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view schematically illustrating an example of an arrangement of the cooling structure for the turbine blade according to the embodiment of the present invention.DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTSHereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a rotor blade 1 of a turbine of a gas turbine engine in which a cooling structure for a turbine blade according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided. The turbine rotor blade 1 is part of a turbine T that is driven by a high temperature gas G flowing in the arrow direction supplied from a combustor, not shown. The turbine rotor blade 1 includes: a first blade wall 3 on the abdomen side curved to be concave relative to a passage GP for the high temperature gas G; and a second blade wall 5 on the back side curved to be convex relative to the passage GP for the high temperature gas. In the present specification, the upstream side in the flow direction of the high temperature gas G (left side in FIG. 1 ) is referred to as a front side, and the downstream side (right side in FIG. 1 ) is referred to as a rear side. In the following description, the turbine rotor blade 1 will be mainly described as an example of a turbine blade in which the cooling structure is provided, but the cooling structure according to the present invention may be provided in substantially the same manner in a turbine stator blade that is a turbine blade unless particularly described otherwise.Specifically, a large number of turbine rotor blades 1 are provided embedded in a circumferential direction, so that, as shown in FIG. 2, a platform 11 of each turbine rotor blade 1 is joined to an outer circumferential portion of a turbine disk 13, thereby forming the turbine T. A front cooling passage 15 is formed in a front portion 1 aof the turbine rotor blade 1 to extend in a blade height direction H and back. A rear cooling passage 17 is formed in a rear portion 1b of the turbine rotor blade 1. These cooling passages 15 and 17 are formed by using a space between the first blade wall 3 and the second blade wall 5, as shown in FIG. 3.As shown in FIG. 2, a cooling medium CL flows toward the radially outer side through a front cooling medium introduction passage 19 and a rear cooling medium introduction passage 21 formed in the turbine disk 13 on the radially inner side, and is introduced into the front cooling passage 15 and the rear cooling passage 17, respectively. In the present embodiment, a part of air compressed by a compressor, not shown, is used as the cooling medium CL. The cooling medium CL supplied to the front cooling passage 15 is discharged through a cooling medium discharge hole which communicates with the outside of the turbine rotor blade 1 and which is not shown. The cooling medium CL supplied to the rear cooling passage 17 is discharged to the outside through a cooling medium discharge port 25 to be described later. An example in which the cooling structure according to the present embodiment is provided only at the rear portion 1 bof the turbine rotor blade 1 will be described below. However, the cooling structure according to the present embodiment may be provided in any region of the turbine rotor blade 1 including the rear portion 1 b.A grid structure body 23 is provided in the rear cooling passage 17 as a member constituting a part of the cooling structure for cooling the turbine rotor blade 1. Each grid structure body 23 internally cools the turbine rotor blade 1 by bringing the cooling medium CL into contact with fins provided upright on each wall surface of the first blade wall 3 and the second blade wall 5 facing the rear cooling passage 17 or by colliding the cooling medium CL against the fins. In the following description, the wall surface of the first blade wall 3 facing the rear cooling passage 17 is referred to as a first wall surface 3 a, and the wall surface of the second blade wall 5 facing the rear cooling passage 17 is referred to as a second wall surface 5 a. In the present embodiment, in the rear cooling passage 17, all the cooling medium CL flows in a direction across the grid structure body 23 from the front side to the rear side. In the following description, the moving direction of the entire cooling medium CL is referred to as a cooling medium moving direction M.In the present embodiment, a plurality of (four in the example shown) grid structure bodies 23 are provided in the rear cooling passage 17. In this example, the plurality of grid structure bodies 23 are arranged so as to be arranged in the height direction H of the turbine rotor blade 1. Separators 27 extending in the cooling medium moving direction M are disposed between the lattice structure bodies 23 adjacent to each other.As shown in FIG. 3, as members forming part of the cooling structure for cooling the turbine rotor blade 1, the turbine rotor blade 1 further includes the cooling medium discharge port 25 and an exposed wall portion 29. In a rear end portion of the turbine rotor blade 1, a portion of the second blade wall 5 is formed whose wall surface is exposed to the outside by cutting out the first blade wall 3 (the passage GP for the high temperature gas). The cooling medium discharge port 25 is provided at an end portion on the downstream side (rear end portion) of the rear cooling passage 17, and discharges the cooling medium CL in the rear cooling passage 17 to the outside. The cooling medium discharge port 25 is formed as a gap between the first wall surface 3 aand the second wall surface 5 aat a location where the first blade wall 3 is cut out as described above. In other words, an exposed wall portion 29 in the form of a portion of the second blade wall 5 that extends outward beyond the cooling medium discharge port 25 is provided. Therefore, a wall surface 29 aof the exposed wall portion 29 facing the blade first wall 3 side constitutes a wall surface continuous with the second wall surface 5 a. An outlet 23 aof each grid structure body 23 is located at the cooling medium discharge port 25.As shown in FIG. 4, the lattice structure body 23 is formed of a combination of a plurality of fin sets provided on both wall surfaces 3 aand 5 afacing the rear cooling passage 17, each of the fin sets including a plurality of fins 31 provided at equal intervals so as to be parallel to each other. The lattice body is formed by stacking the rib sets to form a lattice pattern. In the present embodiment, the lattice structure body 23 is formed by combining two sets of ribs, that is, a first set of ribs (the lower set of ribs in FIG. 4 ) 33A and a second set of ribs (the upper set of ribs in FIG. 4 ) 33B such that the sets of ribs 33A and 33B are stacked on each other in a height direction of the ribs 31 (a direction in which the first wall surface 3 aand the second wall surface 5 aface each other) to form a lattice pattern. In the grid structure body 23, the gap between the adjacent ribs 31, 31 of each rib set 33A, 33B forms a passage (grid passage) 35 for the cooling medium CL. In the rear cooling passage 17, the grid structure body 23 is placed between two side walls 37, 37 extending in the cooling medium moving direction M so as to be oriented such that the grid passages 35 are inclined relative to the cooling medium moving direction M.The cooling medium CL introduced into the lattice structure body 23 initially flows through the lattice passage 35 of one rib set (the lower first rib set 33A in the example shown) as shown by a broken line arrow in FIG. 4, impinges against a side wall 37, is deflected, and flows into the lattice passage 35 of the other rib set (the upper second rib set 33B in the example shown) as shown by a solid line arrow in FIG. 4. The cooling medium CL that has flowed into the grid passage 35 of the other fin set gradually flows through this grid passage 35 forming a swirling flow by the impingement against the side wall 37 and the wall surface 5 a( 3 a), and then reaches the other side wall 37. After repeating a process of flowing through the grid passage 35 of one fin set, impingement against the side wall 37, being deflected, flowing into the grid passage 35 of the other fin set, and flowing through the grid passage 35 in the grid structure body 23 as the swirling flow as described above, the cooling medium CL is discharged from the grid structure body 23. By the cooling medium CL repeatedly colliding against the side wall 37 and the side wall surfaces 3 aand 5 a, a swirling flow is generated in the cooling medium CL flowing through the grid passage 35, thereby enhancing cooling.In each grid structure body 23, also communication portions 23 b, each of which is a portion where the grid passage 35 of the first fin set 33A and the grid passage 35 of the second fin set 33B communicate with each other (that is, a portion where the grid passage 35 of the first fin set 33A and the grid passage 35 of the second fin set 33B intersect each other in plan view), the cooling medium CL flows into the respective grid passages 35.In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 4, in the mesh structure body 23, the heights of the upper and lower ribs 31, that is, the mesh passage heights h in the sheet thickness direction are equal to each other. Further, the distance between the ribs 31, 31 in the first rib set 33A and the distance between the ribs 31, 31 in the second rib set 33B are equal to each other. That is, a mesh passage width w in the first fin set 33A and a mesh passage width w in the second fin set 33B are equal to each other. The angle formed by the extending direction of the first rib set 33A and the extending direction of the second rib set 33B is set to be approximately 90°. Of course, the arrangement configuration of the plurality of ribs 31 in each rib set is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be set as required according to the structure of the turbine blade, the required cooling performance, etc.As shown in FIG. 2, in the present embodiment, the plurality of (four in the example shown) grid structure bodies 23 separated from each other in the height direction H by a plurality of (three in the example shown) separators 27 are provided in the rear cooling passage 17. An upper end wall 17 aof the rear cooling passage 17, the separators 27, and a lower partition wall 17 bof the rear cooling passage 17 shown in FIG. 2 correspond to the side walls 37 in FIG. 4. In this example, a flat plate-like partition plate is used as the partition body 27. Any structural body may be used as each partition body 27 as long as it is a structural body that can substantially close the lattice passages 35 of each rib set, that is, a structural body that can block a flow of the cooling medium CL between the lattice structure bodies 23 adjacent to each other, and can collide the cooling medium CL against the side portion of the lattice structure body 23 and can be deflected to flow from a lattice passage 35 of one rib set to a lattice passage 35 of the other rib set (FIG. 4 ). For example, a plurality of pin fins disposed at a position facing the openings of the respective lattice passages on the side portion of the lattice structure body 23 may be used as each partition body 27.In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 5, in the two lattice structure bodies 23, 23 that are adjacent to each other with the separator body 27 interposed therebetween, the two first rib sets 33A, 33A that are adjacent to each other (the rib sets shown by cross-hatching in FIG. 5 ) and the two second rib sets 33B, 33B that are adjacent to each other (the rib sets shown by broken lines in FIG. 5 ) extend so as to be inclined in opposite directions relative to the separator body 27, respectively. Specifically, the two first rib sets 33A, 33A adjacent to each other and the two second rib sets 33B, 33B adjacent to each other are inclined so as to be symmetrical relative to the separator 27, respectively.As shown in FIG. 5, the cooling medium CL discharged from each lattice structure body 23 forms a swirling flow. In the present embodiment, since the two lattice structure bodies 23, 23 adjacent to each other via the separator 27 are arranged such that the respective rib sets thereof are inclined so as to be symmetrical relative to the separator 27, the cooling medium CL discharged from both lattice structure bodies 23, 23 forms swirling currents in opposite directions. Therefore, the swirling currents in the opposite directions in these cooling mediums CL interfere with each other to thereby cancel each other out. Consequently, the cooling medium CL whose flow direction has been uniformized is discharged to the exposed wall portion 29, and film cooling of the wall surface 29 aof the exposed wall portion 29 by the cooling medium CL is effectively performed.Of course, the two first fin sets adjacent to each other and the two second fin sets adjacent to each other need not be inclined so as to be symmetrical relative to the separator 27, and the effect that the swirling flows of the cooling medium CL discharged from the lattice structure bodies adjacent to each other cancel each other can be obtained as long as the two first fin sets adjacent to each other and the two second fin sets adjacent to each other are inclined relative to the separator 27 in opposite directions. For example, the positions of the ribs of the lattice structure bodies 23, 23 adjacent to each other may be shifted relative to the cooling medium moving direction M, and the inclination angles of the ribs of the lattice structure bodies 23, 23 adjacent to each other relative to the separator body 27 may be different from each other.In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, in the present embodiment, over all the lattice structure bodies 23, the two first rib sets adjacent to each other and the two second rib sets adjacent to each other are each inclined in opposite directions relative to the separator 27. Of course, it is sufficient that at least at the outlet 23a portion of each lattice structure body 23, the two first rib sets adjacent to each other and the two second rib sets adjacent to each other are each inclined in opposite directions relative to the separator body 27.In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 4, in each of the first rib set 33A and the second rib set 33B, each of the ribs is provided between both side walls 37, 37 (between the upper end wall 17 aand the separator 27, between the two separators 27, 27, and between the separator 27 and the lower end wall 17 bin FIG. 2 ) so as to extend such that the plurality of communication portions 23 bare formed between two mesh communication portions 23 bat both end portions of the rib. With such a configuration, a distance sufficient to form a swirling flow and cool the wall surfaces of the grid passages 35 is secured until the cooling medium CL deflected at one side wall 37 reaches the other side wall 37. Of course, the extension length of each rib in each lattice structure body 23 is not limited thereto.In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the outlet 23 aof each grid structure body 23 is located at the cooling medium discharge port 25. Accordingly, after the entire inner space of the rear cooling passage 17 is effectively cooled by the grid structure bodies 23, the film cooling of the rear end portion of the turbine blade can be performed by a uniform flow of the cooling medium CL. Thus, it is possible to further increase the cooling efficiency of the entire turbine blade. As a matter of course, the outlet 23 aof each lattice structure body 23 may be located on the front side relative to the cooling medium discharge port 25.In addition, in the present embodiment, since the cooling medium moving direction M is the chord direction as shown in FIG. 2, the exposed wall portion 29 can certainly have a sufficient dimension in the height direction H of the turbine blade, and thus the cooling efficiency of the entire turbine blade can be further increased. Of course, the cooling medium moving direction M is not limited to the chord direction, and the arrangement of the mesh structure bodies 23, the cooling medium discharge port 25, and the exposed wall portion 29 may be set as appropriate according to the cooling medium moving direction M.In the illustrated example, the grid structure bodies 23 are provided over substantially the entire height direction H (the turbine radial direction) of the turbine rotor blade 1, but the grid structure bodies 23 may be provided only partially in the height direction H of the turbine rotor blade 1. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the mesh structure bodies 23 may be provided only on the base side of the turbine rotor blade 1 (in a half region on the base side in the shown example), that is, the radially inner side. Accordingly, a base portion of the turbine rotor blade 1 in which the requirement of cooling is relatively high, since the base portion is a portion to which a large load is applied, can be cooled effectively. For the same reason, in the case where the mesh structure bodies 23 are provided on a turbine stator blade, the mesh structure bodies 23 may be provided only on the base side of the turbine stator blade, which is the radially outer side of the turbine.As described above, in the cooling structure according to the present embodiment, the cooling media CL discharged from the lattice structure bodies 23, 23 adjacent to each other and formed swirling flows in opposite directions interfere with each other, whereby the swirling flows cancel each other out and the cooling medium CL is straightened to flow in a uniform direction, and then discharged from the cooling medium discharge port 25 to the exposed wall portion 29. Accordingly, the high temperature gas G and the cooling medium CL are prevented from being mixed with each other at the exposed wall portion 29, and a sufficient film cooling effect is achieved. Therefore, both cooling of the inner space of the turbine blade by the mesh structure body 23 and film cooling of the rear edge portion of the turbine blade can be achieved with high efficiency, and thus it is possible to increase the cooling efficiency for the entire turbine blade.
Claims
A cooling structure for a gas turbine engine, the cooling structure being provided for cooling a turbine blade (1) of a turbine driven by high temperature gas (G), the cooling structure comprising: a cooling passage (17) formed between a first blade wall (3) of the turbine blade (1) curved to be concave relative to a passage for the high temperature gas (G) and a second blade wall (5) of the turbine blade (1) curved to be convex relative to the passage for the high temperature gas (G); a plurality of grid structure bodies (23) each including a first set of ribs (33A) formed of a plurality of first ribs linearly extending and provided on a wall surface of the first blade wall (3) facing the cooling passage (17) and a second set of ribs (33B) formed of a plurality of second ribs linearly extending and provided on a wall surface of the second blade wall (5) facing the cooling passage (17), the second set of ribs (33B) being stacked on the first set of ribs (33A) to form a grid pattern; a separator body (27) formed between the two grid structure bodies (23) adjacent to each other and configured to close a passage in each set of ribs (33A, 33B); a cooling medium discharge port (25) provided at a downstream end portion of the cooling passage (17) and configured to discharge the cooling medium (CL) in the cooling passage (17) to the outside; and an exposed wall portion (29) in the form of a portion of the second blade wall (5) extending to the outside beyond the cooling medium discharge port (25); characterized in characterized in at least at respective outlet portions of the two lattice structure bodies (23) that are adjacent to each other with the separator body (27) interposed therebetween, the adjacent two first rib sets (33A) and the adjacent two second rib sets (33B) are each inclined relative to the separator body (27) in opposite directions.The cooling structure according to claim 1, wherein at least at the respective outlet portions of the two lattice structure bodies (23) that are adjacent to each other with the separator body (27) interposed therebetween, the two first fin sets (33A) that are adjacent to each other and the two second fin sets (33B) that are adjacent to each other are inclined so as to be respectively symmetrical relative to the separator body (27).The cooling structure according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an outlet (23a) of each lattice structure body (23) is located at the cooling medium discharge port (25).The cooling structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a moving direction of the entire cooling medium (CL) is a chordwise direction of the turbine blade (1), and the plurality of mesh structure bodies (23) are arranged so as to be arranged in a height direction of the turbine blade (1) with the partition body (27) interposed therebetween.
Citation Information
Patent Citations
Cooling structure
JP4957131B2
Cooling promoting structure
US20160003549A1
Turbine cooling system
US5603606A
JP000004957131B2