Modular Gas Turbine Blade with Form-Fit Joints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gas turbine blade designs face challenges with mechanical stability and cooling efficiency due to stress conditions and high thermal expansion, leading to reduced lifetime and increased cooling air usage.
Innovation Solution
A modular gas turbine blade design featuring a platform element with a through-opening, an aerodynamically shaped shell, and a carrying structure with form-fit joints and turbulators, allowing relative movement and efficient internal cooling with reduced cooling medium usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a double-wall configuration with radial feed passages is used for near-wall cooling, then cooling efficiency is improved, but stress conditions in the interface area worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The airfoil is divided into separate wall sections (first wall, second wall, third wall) that can be independently designed and assembled. This segmentation allows the cooling passages to be distributed across multiple components, reducing stress concentration in any single interface area while maintaining effective near-wall cooling throughout the airfoil structure.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If special materials and designs are used to cope with hot gas temperatures, then component lifetime is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The airfoil is segmented into multiple wall sections that can be manufactured separately using standard processes and then assembled. This allows each section to be optimized for its specific thermal and mechanical requirements without requiring the entire component to be manufactured as a complex integrated unit, thus reducing overall manufacturing complexity while extending component lifetime.
Solution Approach 2:
The airfoil employs composite construction with multiple wall sections made of different materials or designs, allowing each section to be tailored for its specific operational conditions. This composite approach enables the use of special materials where needed for high-temperature resistance while maintaining ease of manufacture for other sections, ultimately extending component lifetime without uniformly increasing manufacturing complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If modular components with separate mounting means are used, then adaptability is improved, but mechanical stability worsens due to discontinuity
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting means are extracted as separate, standardized components that can be independently designed and optimized. This allows the airfoil sections to be manufactured and adapted independently while the mounting interface is designed specifically to ensure mechanical stability when assembled, resolving the contradiction between modular adaptability and structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple airfoil wall sections are merged into a unified structure through carefully designed interfaces and mounting means. This merging maintains the adaptability benefits of modular components while creating a stable, integrated structure that performs as a cohesive unit under operational loads, thus improving mechanical stability without sacrificing modular adaptability.
4Strength
If strong coupling between components is used, then structural integrity is improved, but thermal stresses increase reducing lifetime
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling between airfoil wall sections is designed to be dynamically adaptable, allowing relative movement and thermal expansion between components. This dynamic coupling maintains structural integrity under varying thermal conditions while reducing thermal stress accumulation, thereby extending component lifetime without compromising strength.
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 design enhances mechanical stability, reduces manufacturing complexity and costs, and achieves efficient cooling with high convective yield, extending component lifetime and improving engine performance.
Implementation Method 1
a number of through-holes in the carrying structure for directing a cooling medium from the interior passage into the gap
Implementation Method 2
flows out through feed-holes into the gap, defined between load carrying structure and shell, and passes the gap with a high yield rate of convective cooling
Implementation Method 3
this joint design allows relative movement between shell and carrying structure in longitudinal direction to compensate thermal expansion
Implementation Method 4
the first joint between shell and carrying structure is a welded joint, a brazed joint or a retainer joint
Implementation Method 5
the first joint between shell and carrying structure is a welded joint, a brazed joint or a retainer joint
Implementation Method 6
In those areas of the gap, applied with cooling air, the exterior surface of the carrying structure and/or the inner surface of the shell are equipped with turbulators, for example ribs or pedestals, for enhancing heat transfer
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a modular blade or vane for a gas turbine, which comprises the modular components of: a platform element (53) with a planar or contoured surface defining a platform level (56) and a through-opening (66) therein, and an airfoil (32), extending through the platform element (53), wherein the airfoil (32) having: a load carrying structure (33) extending along a longitudinal axis (55) of the airfoil (32), having a root portion (35) for fastening on a blade or vane carrier of the gas turbine, having a tip portion (36), and having at least one interior passage (46), extending from the root portion (35) to the tip portion (36) of the airfoil (32), an aerodynamically shaped shell (34) extending in a distance (37) over the carrying structure (33) and defining the outer contour (40) of the airfoil (32), a longitudinally extending gap (48), defined between the carrying structure (33) and the shell (34), a number of through-holes (47) in the carrying structure (33) for directing a cooling medium (49) from the interior passage (46) into the gap (48), characterized in that the shell (34) being integrally joined to said carrying structure (33) by a first joint in a region below the platform level (56) of the platform element (53); and the shell (34) being joined to the carrying structure (33) by at least one additional joint, wherein said at least one additional joint is a form-fit joint, allowing relative movement in longitudinal direction between shell (34) and carrying structure (33).