Turbine Blade Cooling Duct Ramped Wall and Concave Exhaust
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cooling circuits in turbine blades often experience stagnant fluid volumes, particularly at corners, leading to overheating and reduced engine efficiency due to inadequate fluid distribution and exit strategies.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a cooling fluid feed duct with a ramped wall to maintain flow velocity and a concave exhaust duct to align and concentrate fluid flow, ensuring even distribution and reducing stagnant volumes without the need for additional fluid flow or multiple exit locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cooling fluid is routed through conventional ducts to the cooling circuit, then the cooling circuit can be supplied with cooling fluid, but stagnant fluid volumes occur particularly at corners leading to overheating
Solution Approach 1:
The feed duct incorporates a ramped wall that curves to align with the elongate entrance to the cooling circuit, creating a streamlined flow path. The exhaust duct features a substantially concave chamber with a curved profile that directs fluid flow smoothly into the exhaust passageway. These curved geometries eliminate sharp corners and dead zones where stagnation would occur, ensuring continuous fluid movement throughout the ducting system.
Solution Approach 2:
The ramped wall in the feed duct is configured with specific geometric parameters (slope, length, curvature radius) to maintain optimal flow velocity. The concave exhaust chamber is designed with particular dimensional relationships between its wider end, narrower end, and curvature to concentrate and direct flow efficiently. These parameter optimizations ensure the cooling fluid maintains sufficient velocity to prevent stagnation while effectively cooling the blade.
2Speed
If the cooling fluid velocity is not maintained along the elongated entrance, then the duct design is simpler, but the cooling fluid stagnates and creates inactive velocity regions
Solution Approach 1:
The ramped wall introduces a controlled curvature to the feed duct geometry, transforming a simple straight duct into a streamlined passage that maintains fluid velocity. This curved transition smoothly guides the cooling fluid from the feed chamber into the elongate entrance, preventing flow separation and stagnation zones that would occur with sharp angles or abrupt transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The ramped wall adds a dimensional element to the duct design by introducing a sloped surface that progresses along the flow direction. This three-dimensional geometric feature creates a gradual expansion or contraction profile that manages fluid velocity and pressure, maintaining active flow throughout the elongated entrance region without requiring complex active control systems.
3Reliability
If multiple exit locations are used to eliminate stagnant volumes, then fluid distribution improves, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The exhaust duct consolidates multiple potential exit points into a single integrated exhaust passageway. The substantially concave chamber acts as a collection zone that receives cooling fluid from the entire elongated exit region of the cooling circuit, merging distributed flow into a unified exhaust stream. This single-point exhaust configuration simplifies the system while maintaining effective fluid distribution throughout the cooling circuit.
Solution Approach 2:
The concave exhaust chamber serves as an intermediary structure between the cooling circuit and the exhaust system. It acts as a flow distributor and collector, receiving fluid from various locations along the cooling circuit exit and redistributing it through its curved geometry to ensure uniform flow patterns before discharge. This intermediary chamber eliminates the need for multiple separate exit locations while maintaining effective cooling throughout.
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 design effectively reduces stagnant volumes, enhances cooling efficiency, and increases engine performance by ensuring uniform fluid distribution and reuse of spent cooling fluid, thereby improving overall engine efficiency and reducing complexity and costs.
Implementation Method 1
the exit including a ramped wall substantially maintaining a flow velocity of the cooling fluid along the elongated entrance to the cooling circuit
Implementation Method 2
a substantially concave exhaust chamber including an exhaust entrance at a wider end of the exhaust chamber and in fluid communication with an elongated exit from the cooling circuit
Data Source
AI summary
A blade cooling circuit feed and exhaust duct and related cooling structure are provided. The feed duct may include a feed chamber having a feed entrance fluidly coupled to a cooling fluid source and a feed exit to an elongate entrance to the cooling circuit, the feed exit including a ramped wall maintaining a flow velocity of the cooling fluid along the elongated entrance to the cooling circuit. The exhaust duct may include a substantially concave exhaust chamber including an exhaust entrance at a wider end of the exhaust chamber and in fluid communication with an elongated exit from the cooling circuit, and an exhaust exit at a narrower end of the exhaust chamber, the exhaust exit including an opening to an exhaust passageway from the exhaust chamber.