Linear Gasket Slit for Blade Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inter-blade platform linear gaskets fail to achieve perfect sealing due to their inability to fit closely to blades with sudden discontinuities or small radii of curvature, leading to air leakage and performance degradation in gas turbine reaction engines.
Innovation Solution
A linear gasket with a longitudinal slit extending over a fraction of its length, allowing for increased flexibility and adaptation to the blade's shape, particularly around leading and trailing edges, and featuring a varying cross-section and stiffeners for improved contact and durability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a linear gasket with a continuous lip is used, then the gasket structure is simple and rigid, but it cannot fit closely to blades with sudden discontinuities or small radii of curvature, causing air leakage
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous lip of the gasket is divided into segments by introducing linear slits, allowing each segment to independently adapt to the blade's complex geometry while maintaining overall structural integrity. This segmentation enables the gasket to conform to sudden discontinuities and small radii of curvature without compromising sealing performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The gasket transitions from a rigid, fixed structure to a dynamic, adaptable structure through the inclusion of slits. These slits allow the lip to flex and deform elastically, enabling real-time adaptation to the blade's shape variations while maintaining continuous contact for effective sealing.
2Strength
If the gasket lip is made rigid to maintain structural stability, then the gasket can withstand mechanical loads, but it cannot adapt to zones of sudden discontinuity, leading to air flow between blade and platform
Solution Approach 1:
The gasket structure is differentiated into regions with different properties: the base remains rigid to provide structural support and mounting stability, while the lip contains localized flexible segments created by slits that can deform to match the blade's complex geometry. This local quality differentiation allows simultaneous achievement of mechanical strength and sealing effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The gasket functions as a composite structure combining rigid and flexible characteristics within a single component. The base provides rigidity for structural integrity, while the slit-containing lip provides flexibility for adaptation, creating a composite functional material that satisfies both mechanical and sealing requirements.
3Reliability
If the gasket is made more flexible to adapt to blade contours, then sealing improves, but mechanical stress and wear increase, reducing gasket lifespan
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the lip into flexible sections separated by slits, the gasket distributes mechanical stresses across multiple smaller segments rather than concentrating them in a continuous structure. This segmentation reduces wear on any single point while maintaining overall flexibility for adaptation to blade contours.
Solution Approach 2:
The gasket design changes the flexibility parameter locally through the introduction of slits, allowing controlled deformation in specific zones while maintaining rigidity in others. This parameter modification enables the gasket to adapt to blade shapes without excessive overall flexibility that would lead to premature wear and failure.
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 gasket achieves a tighter seal by matching the blade's shape, reducing mechanical stress and wear, and enhancing its lifespan while maintaining effective sealing even in zones of sudden discontinuity.
Implementation Method 1
Because of the linear slit, the distal end portion is locally more flexible than the same distal end portion would be if it did not have such a slit
Implementation Method 2
a linear distal end portion configured to contact a pressure side wall or a suction side wall of a blade... The sealing of the air (or gas) passage is thus not perfect
Data Source
AI summary
A linear gasket for an inter-blade platform that presents a length, the gasket including a linear base for fastening to the inter-blade platform and a linear lip projecting from the linear base, the linear lip including a linear distal end portion configured to contact a pressure side wall or a suction side wall of a blade, a linear groove being formed between the linear base and the linear lip over at least a fraction of a length of the linear gasket. The linear distal end portion includes at least one linear slit extending over at least a fraction of the length of the gasket.