Curved Coolable Component for Streaming Engine Convection Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Coolable components for streaming engines, such as gas turbines, face challenges in long-term usage reliability and efficient cooling, particularly in maintaining durability under mechanical stress and oxidation processes, while requiring adaptation to specific usage requirements.
Innovation Solution
A coolable component with a partially curved outer surface featuring strategically positioned cooling channels that provide convection cooling, with specific distance and surface area criteria to ensure efficient and reliable cooling, combined with the use of a Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) layer for enhanced performance, and potentially integrated with additive manufacturing for complex designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If cooling channels are positioned close to the outer surface to improve cooling efficiency, then cooling effectiveness increases, but mechanical strength and durability under mechanical stress decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by positioning cooling channels at specific distances from the outer surface based on local thermal and mechanical requirements. Different regions of the component have different cooling channel distances optimized for their specific function - areas requiring better cooling have channels closer to the surface, while areas requiring higher mechanical strength have channels positioned deeper, creating a non-uniform distribution that optimizes both cooling effectiveness and structural integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of cooling channel distance from the outer surface as a key design variable. By optimizing this distance parameter within specific ranges (at least 7% of outer wall thickness but not exceeding certain limits), the patent achieves a balance between thermal performance and mechanical properties, allowing the same component design to satisfy both cooling requirements and structural strength requirements
2Reliability
If cooling channels are positioned deep inside the outer wall to maintain mechanical integrity, then durability improves, but cooling efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by creating region-specific cooling channel configurations where the distance from the outer surface is optimized for each local area's requirements. This allows the component to have enhanced durability in critical structural regions while maintaining effective cooling in thermally critical zones, achieving both goals simultaneously through spatially varying channel positioning
3Weight of moving object
If the outer wall is made thinner to reduce weight, then weight decreases, but the distance between cooling channels and outer surface must be carefully controlled to maintain both cooling effectiveness and structural integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses parameter changes by establishing specific ranges for the distance between cooling channels and the outer surface as a function of the outer wall thickness. When the outer wall is made thinner to reduce weight, the patent adjusts the cooling channel positioning parameters accordingly - maintaining the distance within optimized ranges that ensure both adequate cooling effectiveness and sufficient structural integrity for the reduced thickness
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 provides improved cooling homogeneity, reduced thermal stress on TBC layers, and increased durability, allowing for higher temperature operation and longer component lifespan without compromising mechanical integrity.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one cooling channel is adapted to provide a convection cooling of the outer surface
Implementation Method 2
the outer surface is at least partially coated with a coating like a TBC layer that is adapted to be in contact with the hot fluid
Data Source
AI summary
A coolable component for a streaming engine providing an improved cooling, wherein the coolable component includes an outer wall providing an outer surface adapted to be in contact with a hot fluid like a hot gas stream used in the streaming engine or to be coated with a coating that is adapted to be in contact with the hot fluid, wherein the outer surface is at least partially curved. The coolable component includes at least one cooling channel inside the outer wall adapted to guide a cooling fluid through the cooling channel to cool the outer wall during operation of the streaming engine, wherein the cooling channel is adapted to provide a convection cooling of the outer surface.