Turbine Cooling Plenum via Mini-Disk Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine engine cooling systems incur aerodynamic losses and inefficiencies due to the routing of cooling air through rotating and non-rotating components, which reduces the effectiveness of cooling and overall engine efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A turbine stage design featuring a disk with slots and a mini-disk that directs cooling air radially inward through all rotating components, creating a cooling plenum to deliver air directly to the inner diameter bore, thereby avoiding non-rotating components and minimizing dynamic losses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cooling air is routed through rotating and non-rotating components between the high pressure compressor and high pressure turbine, then the cooling air can reach the turbine blades, but aerodynamic losses increase and cooling effectiveness decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the cooling air routing path from the conventional complex path through multiple rotating and non-rotating components, and creates a simplified direct path through the rotor disk only. The cooling air is taken directly from the compressor discharge and routed through the rotor disk to the turbine blades, eliminating unnecessary intermediate components and reducing aerodynamic losses.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of routing cooling air from the compressor through various intermediate components to the turbine, the invention inverts the approach by routing cooling air directly through the rotor disk itself. The rotor disk becomes the primary cooling air conduit rather than an intermediate component, reversing the conventional routing logic and achieving superior aerodynamic efficiency.
2Reliability
If cooling air passes through multiple rotating and non-rotating components, then the cooling air can be distributed to turbine blades, but the volume of cooling air required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the essential cooling function from a multi-component routing system and implements it through a simplified direct path. By taking out the unnecessary intermediate components, the system achieves the same blade cooling effect with reduced cooling air volume requirements.
3Reliability
If cooling air is routed through conventional paths with multiple components, then the system is proven reliable, but the overall gas turbine engine efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the core cooling function from the conventional complex routing system and implements it through a simplified direct path through the rotor disk. This extraction eliminates unnecessary components and aerodynamic losses while maintaining reliable blade cooling, thereby improving overall engine efficiency.
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 configuration enhances the aerodynamic efficiency of cooling fluid routing, increases the effectiveness of turbine blade cooling, and improves the overall efficiency of the gas turbine engine by containing cooling air within rotating components, reducing the volume of cooling air required and extending the life of engine components.
Implementation Method 1
the bleed air must also pass through high pressure zones within the engine that exceed pressures needed to cool the turbine blades
Implementation Method 2
cooling air is passed into interior cooling channels of the airfoil to remove heat from the alloy
Implementation Method 3
cooling air is passed into interior cooling channels of the airfoil to remove heat from the alloy
Data Source
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AI summary
A gas turbine engine configured to rotate in a circumferential direction about an axis extending through a center of the gas turbine engine comprises a turbine stage. The turbine stage comprises a disk, a plurality of blades and a mini-disk. The disk comprises an outer diameter edge having slots, an inner diameter bore surrounding the axis, a forward face, and an aft face. The plurality of blades is coupled to the slots. The mini-disk is coupled to the aft face of the rotor to define a cooling plenum therebetween in order to direct cooling air to the slots. In one embodiment of the invention, the cooling plenum is connected to a radially inner compressor bleed air inlet through all rotating components so that cooling air passes against the inner diameter bore.