Turbine Airfoil Platform Cooling via Segmented Impingement Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Turbine engine components, particularly airfoils and platforms, face challenges in effectively managing high temperatures, leading to the need for efficient cooling solutions to maintain performance and durability.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves an apparatus with impingement channels located in the platform of a turbine airfoil assembly. These channels include a first segment extending from a platform chamber toward a first impingement surface and a second segment extending from the first segment toward the upper or lower surface, facilitating impingement cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If traditional cooling methods are used for airfoil and platform, then cooling coverage is limited, but cooling effectiveness at edges and surfaces is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is segmented into multiple independent channels: platform chambers, impingement channels with first and second segments, and cooling holes. This segmentation allows targeted cooling of different regions (platform surfaces, airfoil edges, and specific surfaces) simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between limited cooling coverage and insufficient cooling effectiveness at critical areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The impingement channels feature varying cross-sectional areas along their length, with the first segment having a larger cross-sectional area than the second segment. This creates localized high-velocity cooling fluid jets at the impingement surfaces, concentrating cooling effectiveness at critical edge and surface regions while maintaining overall system efficiency.
2Temperature
If more cooling fluid is used to improve cooling effectiveness, then temperature control improves, but bleed air requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes pneumatic principles by directing cooling fluid through impingement channels that create high-velocity jets. The varying cross-sectional areas of the channels convert pressure to velocity, maximizing cooling effectiveness with minimal fluid quantity. This resolves the contradiction by achieving superior temperature control through fluid dynamics rather than increased fluid volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The impingement channels are designed with changing cross-sectional parameters along their length, transitioning from larger to smaller areas. This parameter change creates accelerated cooling fluid flow and enhanced heat transfer coefficients, allowing effective cooling with reduced bleed air requirements compared to uniform channel designs.
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
This cooling apparatus efficiently removes heat from the platform surfaces and airfoil edges, reducing the amount of bleed air required and lowering surface and edge temperatures, thereby enhancing durability and service life.
Implementation Method 1
an impingement channel including: a first segment extending from a platform chamber toward a first impingement surface
Implementation Method 2
a cooling hole fluidly coupling a distal end of the impingement channel with the upper surface or the lower surface
Data Source
AI summary
An airfoil assembly for a turbine engine, the airfoil assembly including a platform having an upper surface and a lower surface that are spaced from one another in a radial direction; a leading edge and trailing edge that are spaced from one another in an axial direction; and a first slash face and a second slash face that are spaced from one another in a circumferential direction. An airfoil can extend in from the platform in a radial direction. A platform chamber can be defined at least partially between the upper surface and the lower surface. The platform can include an impingement channel.