Turbine Cooling Insert for Complex Internal Geometries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Incorporating cooling passages into gas turbine components is expensive and limits the complexity of interior geometries, affecting heat transfer efficiency and engine performance.
Innovation Solution
A cooling arrangement for turbine components featuring a recessed insert with cooling features and a cavity, which is slidably secured into a slot on the component's sidewall, allowing for enhanced coolant flow and heat transfer through a high-pressure connector and passages, maintaining an aerodynamic profile and utilizing materials like nickel-based superalloys.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cooling passages are incorporated by casting, then cooling functionality is achieved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling arrangement is divided into separate modular components including a platform, a cooling insert with cooling passages, and a slot. The cooling insert can be independently manufactured and then installed into the platform, allowing each component to be optimized separately and reducing overall manufacturing complexity and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling passages are extracted from the main platform structure and placed in a separate insert component. This allows the cooling functionality to be removed as a distinct module that can be manufactured using different, potentially less expensive, processes and then integrated into the platform.
2Reliability
If cooling passages are incorporated by casting, then cooling functionality is achieved, but interior geometry complexity is limited
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the cooling passages into a distinct insert component, complex interior geometries can be achieved within the insert without complicating the main platform structure. The insert can contain intricate cooling passage arrangements that would be difficult to cast integrally with the platform.
Solution Approach 2:
Extracting the cooling passages into a separate insert allows for independent design optimization of the interior geometry. Complex cooling patterns, impingement zones, and passage configurations can be implemented in the insert without being constrained by the casting process limitations of the main platform.
3Reliability
If cooling passages are incorporated by casting, then cooling functionality is achieved, but heat transfer efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling insert allows for local optimization of heat transfer characteristics in specific regions. Different sections of the insert can have tailored cooling passage configurations, impingement features, and flow paths optimized for local thermal conditions, thereby improving overall heat transfer efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The modular insert design enables dynamic optimization of cooling configurations. The insert can be designed with features that promote turbulent flow, impingement cooling, and enhanced heat transfer mechanisms that would be difficult to achieve with conventional casting methods.
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 reduces costs, increases heat transfer coefficients, and enhances engine performance by allowing more complex interior geometries while minimizing cooling flow requirements.
Implementation Method 1
Cooling passages may be formed in gas turbine components to help circulate coolant for extending the service life of these components
Implementation Method 2
circulate coolant for extending the service life of these components
Implementation Method 3
allowing for enhanced coolant flow and heat transfer through a high-pressure connector and passages
Implementation Method 4
increases heat transfer coefficients, and enhances engine performance
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of creating a cooling arrangement (100) for a turbine component (101), and a turbine component (101) with such cooling arrangement (100) are provided. The turbine component (101) includes an interior cooling passage formed therein. The method comprises a step of forming a slot (102) through a side wall of the turbine component (101). The method further comprises a step of forming an insert (104) having one or more cooling features (105) and a cavity (106). The method further comprises a step of positioning the insert (104) within the slot (102). The method further comprises a step of securing the insert (104) within the slot (102). The method further comprises a step of forming at least one passage (107) in fluid communication with the internal cooling passage, the insert (104), and an exterior surface (108) of the turbine component (101).