Blade Outer Air Seal Fin Cooling Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cooling complex geometries of blade outer air seals in gas turbine engines is difficult due to their intricate designs, which hampers aerodynamic efficiency and heat management.
Innovation Solution
A blade outer air seal with a body having grooves and fins that extend radially, featuring internal cooling passages from a cooling cavity to outlets, utilizing a refractory metal core to form passages within the fins, allowing fluid flow through these passages to cool the interface between the seal and rotating blades.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If complex BOAS geometries are developed to enhance sealing interfaces, then sealing performance is improved, but cooling difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The BOAS body is segmented into multiple fins extending radially between circumferential grooves, with each fin containing internal cooling passages. This segmentation allows cooling fluid to be distributed through multiple separate pathways, improving heat removal from the complex sealing geometry while maintaining the enhanced sealing interface.
Solution Approach 2:
Cooling passages are implemented in the radial dimension by extending fins radially from the BOAS body, with cooling fluid flowing through these radially extending fins. This adds a radial cooling dimension that effectively cools the complex sealing interfaces without interfering with the sealing geometry.
2Temperature
If fins with internal cooling passages are added to the BOAS body, then cooling effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fins serve multiple functions simultaneously: they provide structural support for the BOAS body, create sealing surfaces through their radial extension, and conduct cooling fluid through internal passages. This multi-functionality improves cooling effectiveness while avoiding the need for separate cooling components that would increase complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Cooling passages are nested within the fins themselves, with the cooling fluid pathways embedded in the fin structure. This nesting integrates the cooling system within the existing fin geometry, improving cooling effectiveness without adding external complexity.
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
Enhances aerodynamic efficiency and effective cooling of the seal and blade interface, enabling operation in hotter engine areas like the high-pressure turbine section.
Implementation Method 1
communicating a flow of fluid through a cooling passage within a fin of a blade outer air seal to an interface between the blade outer air seal and a rotating blade array
Data Source
AI summary
A blade outer air seal according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a body to be distributed circumferentially about a blade array. The body has a plurality of grooves, which can, for example, improve the aerodynamic efficiency of a turbine. A fin is between a first groove and a second groove of the plurality of grooves. The fin extends radially from the body and terminates at a radially inner fin face that provides one or more cooling outlets. A sacrificial structure for forming internal cooling passages within a blade outer air seal and a method of cooling an interface between a blade outer air seal and a rotating blade array is also disclosed.