Airfoil Mount Plenum Cooling for Trailing-Edge Platform Areas
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for manufacturing turbomachine components with platform cooling passages are challenging due to fragile and complex cores, high costs, and issues with braze material blocking cooling holes, particularly in areas behind the airfoil body trailing edge and along the sidewall.
Innovation Solution
An airfoil component with a primary cooling plenum, impingement cooling member, collection plenum, and cooling passages, including second cooling openings in the airfoil mount, allows for precise cooling of the platform area using additive manufacturing techniques like DMLM or SLM, bypassing the blockage caused by conventional braze materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional casting and drilling methods are used to create cooling passages, then manufacturing process is simpler, but cooling effectiveness deteriorates due to braze material blocking cooling holes
Solution Approach 1:
The airfoil component is divided into multiple segments (airfoil body, airfoil mounts, platform) that are additively manufactured separately and then assembled. This segmentation allows cooling passages to be created within each segment using additive manufacturing, avoiding the need for braze materials that would block cooling holes in conventional single-piece casting methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The conventional mechanical processes of casting and drilling are replaced with additive manufacturing technology. This substitution enables the direct creation of complex internal cooling passages and surface cooling openings without requiring core removal or post-casting drilling, eliminating the braze material blockage issue entirely.
2Reliability
If additive manufacturing is used to manufacture airfoil component, then cooling effectiveness improves by accessing previously inaccessible areas, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple functions are merged into the additive manufacturing process: creating complex external airfoil geometry, internal cooling passages, and surface cooling openings all in a single manufacturing step. This consolidation achieves the complex geometry needed for effective cooling without proportionally increasing overall device complexity, as the complexity is handled by the manufacturing process rather than additional components.
Solution Approach 2:
The design transitions from conventional 2D cooling hole patterns to 3D integrated cooling passages throughout the airfoil component. Additive manufacturing enables cooling passages to extend in multiple dimensions within the component volume, providing superior cooling effectiveness by accessing previously inaccessible areas while the modular assembly approach manages the resulting complexity.
3Ease of manufacture
If cooling passages are cast into the airfoil body, then manufacturing process is simpler, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to fragile and complex cores
Solution Approach 1:
Conventional casting processes with physical cores are replaced with additive manufacturing. This substitution eliminates the need for fragile complex cores entirely, as cooling passages are built layer-by-layer directly within the component. The result is superior manufacturing precision for cooling passages without sacrificing manufacturing simplicity, as the additive process is digitally controlled.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables effective cooling of turbomachine components, improving performance by ensuring coolant reaches areas previously inaccessible, enhancing the overall efficiency and functionality of turbomachine components.
Implementation Method 1
a primary cooling plenum extending through the airfoil body for directing a coolant therethrough
Implementation Method 2
an impingement cooling member within the primary cooling plenum, the impingement cooling member including a plurality of impingement openings defined therein configured to direct the coolant from the primary cooling plenum toward an inner surface of part of the airfoil body
Implementation Method 3
a collection plenum defined in the airfoil body configured to collect the coolant exiting the plurality of impingement openings
Implementation Method 4
a plurality of cooling passages defined in the airfoil body and in fluid communication with the collection plenum, each of the plurality of cooling passages extending to at least one first film cooling opening
Implementation Method 5
a mount cooling plenum defined, at least in part, in each airfoil mount and in fluid communication with the collection plenum
Implementation Method 6
a plurality of second cooling openings defined in the flow path facing surface of each airfoil mount downstream of the trailing edge, the plurality of second cooling openings in fluid communication with the mount cooling plenum
Data Source
AI summary
An airfoil component includes an airfoil body having a pressure side, a suction side, a trailing edge, and an airfoil mount. A collection plenum is defined in the airfoil body and is configured to collect coolant exiting from impingement openings in an impingement member therein. Cooling passages are defined in the airfoil body and in fluid communication with the collection plenum and extend to first film cooling opening(s) in part(s) of the airfoil body. A mount cooling plenum is defined, at least in part, in the airfoil mount and in fluid communication with the collection plenum. Second cooling openings are defined in the flow path facing surface of the airfoil mount downstream of the trailing edge and are in fluid communication with the mount cooling plenum. The second film cooling holes cool the airfoil mount and any platform coupled thereto. The airfoil component can be additively manufactured.