Cooled Airfoil Assembly With Platform Passage Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Turbine engines face challenges in effectively cooling components, particularly at high temperatures, which affects efficiency, longevity, and operational costs due to inadequate cooling methods.
Innovation Solution
A cooled airfoil assembly is created by casting an airfoil with integrated cooling passages, including a platform cooling passage and an airfoil cooling passage, connected by a passage forming tool, and sealed with a plug to efficiently distribute cooling air within the assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cooling passages are formed by drilling through external walls, then cooling air can be distributed to components, but structural integrity is compromised and manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from forming cooling passages by drilling through external walls (one-dimensional approach) to forming passages through the platform surface (two-dimensional approach). The breakout opening is formed on the platform surface rather than drilling through airfoil external walls, allowing passage forming tools to access internal structures without compromising structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform serves as an intermediary structure that provides access to cooling passages. Instead of directly drilling through the airfoil walls, the system uses the platform with its breakout opening as a mediating access point, allowing cooling air to be distributed to the airfoil through connecting passages formed from the platform surface.
2Ease of manufacture
If multiple separate components are used for platform and airfoil, then manufacturing flexibility is improved, but assembly complexity and potential leakage paths increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the platform and airfoil into a single integrally formed component. The casting process creates both structures as one piece, eliminating the need for separate manufacturing and assembly operations. This integration removes potential leakage paths between components while maintaining the functional separation of platform and airfoil structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrally formed platform-airfoil component serves multiple functions simultaneously: the platform provides structural support and cooling air distribution, while the airfoil provides aerodynamic function. The unified structure allows cooling passages to be formed through the platform and connect to the airfoil interior, achieving both structural and cooling functions in a single component.
3Manufacturing precision
If cooling passages are formed after casting, then manufacturing precision is improved, but additional manufacturing steps and complexity are introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The breakout opening is formed on the platform surface during the casting process itself, before the component is fully assembled or put into service. This preliminary formation of the opening allows subsequent passage forming operations to be performed more easily and precisely, as the access point is already prepared in the correct location and configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for making a cooled component for a turbine engine includes casting an airfoil assembly having an airfoil with an airfoil cooling passage and extending from a platform with at least one platform cooling passage, and forming a connecting passage between the airfoil cooling air passage and the platform cooling air passage via a tool inserted into a breakout opening in a slashface of the platform.