Sliding Baffle Inserts for Gas Turbine Vane Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vane designs in gas turbine engines face challenges in inserting baffles into cavities due to attachment hooks and rails, which restrict cooling air flow and hinder the use of space-filling baffles, leading to inefficient cooling and heat transfer.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of sliding baffle inserts with opposing flanges that can be nested and expanded within the vane cavity, allowing lateral sliding and anchoring within slotted vane ribs, enabling effective cooling air distribution through impingement holes and filmholes, and improving heat transfer coefficients.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If attachment hooks and rails are used to secure baffles in the vane cavity, then the baffles can be positioned to reduce cavity volume and increase heat transfer coefficients, but the hooks and rails cover up the cavity opening and prevent baffles from being inserted radially into the cavity
Solution Approach 1:
The baffle assembly is divided into multiple segments: a first baffle body with opposing flanges, and a second baffle body with a hollow interior. This segmentation allows the baffles to be inserted radially through the cavity opening while the flanges engage with the vane cavity to secure positioning, resolving the conflict between insertion ease and positioning reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The first baffle body is nested within the hollow interior of the second baffle body. This nested configuration allows both baffles to be inserted through the same radial opening without requiring additional access points, while the flanges of the first baffle body provide secure anchoring within the cavity
2Ease of operation
If conventional baffle insertion methods are used, then the cavity opening must be accessible for radial insertion, but attachment hooks and rails block this opening
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of inserting baffles from the radial direction and then securing them with hooks and rails that block the opening, the invention inverts the approach: the flanged baffle bodies are inserted radially and secured through the engagement of flanges with the vane cavity features, allowing the opening to remain accessible for insertion while achieving reliable positioning without blocking hooks or rails
3Reliability
If more cooling air is used, then better cooling performance is achieved, but the amount of cooling air required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the cooling flow by reducing cavity volume through baffle insertion, which increases Mach numbers and heat transfer coefficients. This parameter change allows achieving better cooling performance with reduced cooling air usage, as the enhanced heat transfer efficiency extracts more cooling capability from the same or reduced air flow
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
This solution enhances cooling efficiency by increasing Mach numbers and heat transfer coefficients, allowing for reduced cooling air usage and improved vane performance in gas turbine engines.
Implementation Method 1
The first and second baffle bodies can include a plurality of impingement holes for supplying cooling air to a cavity of an airfoil
Implementation Method 2
This solution enhances cooling efficiency by increasing Mach numbers and heat transfer coefficients
Data Source
AI summary
A vane includes a vane body extending from a root to an opposed tip along a longitudinal axis and first and second baffle bodies. The vane body defines a leading edge and a trailing edge, and a cavity defined between the leading edge, the trailing edge, the root and the tip. The vane body includes at least one vane rib defined between the leading edge and the trailing edge inside the cavity. The first baffle body is defined in one of a leading edge portion and a trailing edge portion of the cavity. The second baffle body is defined in a middle portion of the cavity.