None.
None.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a gas turbine engine, and more specifically to a turbine rotor blade made from a spar and shell construction.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
A gas turbine engine, such as an industrial gas turbine (IGT) engine, passes a hot gas flow through a turbine having a number of stages or rows of rotor blades and stator vanes to extract energy and drive the rotor shaft to produce electric power. It is well known that the efficiency of the engine can be increased by passing a higher temperature gas through the turbine. However, the maximum temperature is related to the material properties and the cooling capability of the first stages blades and vanes.
Prior art turbine airfoils are produced from high temperature resistant materials such as Inconnel and other nickel based super-alloys in which the airfoils are cast using the well known investment casting process. These materials have relatively high temperature resistance. However, a thin walled airfoil cannot be produced using the investment casting process because the airfoil wall is too thin for casting of the alloy may not be castable at all. A thin walled airfoil would be ideal for improved cooling capability since the heat transfer rate through the thin wall would be extremely high. In a thin walled airfoil, the outer airfoil surface temperature would be about the same as the inner airfoil wall temperature because of the high heat transfer rate.
Exotic high temperature resistant materials such as Tungsten, Molybdenum and Columbium have higher melting temperature than the nickel based super-alloys currently used in turbine airfoils. However, tungsten and molybdenum cannot be cast because of their high melting temperatures, and especially cannot be cast into a thin wall airfoil because the material cannot flow within the small space formed within the mold.
Rotor blades must be replaced or repaired on a regular basis in order to maintain high levels of efficiency in the operation of an engine like the IGT engine used for electrical power generation. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide for a rotor blade that will allow for quick and easy replacement of any damaged or worn part of the blade so that the new blade can be installed. Also, it would be beneficial for the blade to be easily refurbished or brought back to like new condition without having to machine or weld or use other metal working processes to fix the blade.
Thus, a new and improved turbine blade has been proposed in which a high temperature resistant exotic material such as tungsten or molybdenum is used to form a thin walled shell for the airfoil that is secured to a spar that forms a rigid support structure for the shell. The shell is formed from tungsten or molybdenum using an EDM (electric discharge machining) process such as wire EDM to cut the metallic material into the shell shape. The shell in then secured to the spar to form a turbine blade or vane which can be used under much higher operating temperatures than the investment cast nickel super-alloy blade or vane.
The above objectives and more are achieved with the turbine rotor blade of the present invention which includes a spar and shell construction in which the spar extends from the root and platform section of the blade to form a single piece, and a shell is secured to the spar to form the blade assembly, and where the shell is secured to the spar with the use of a series of bicast locks or retainers that hold the shell to the spar and transmit the radial loads along the length of the spar to more evenly distribute the centrifugal loads. The bicast locks are poured into a cavity that is formed when the shell is positioned over the spar, and the bicast lock is brazed to the cavity surfaces to form a rigid retainer.
To remove a damaged shell from the blade assembly, the bicast retainers are easily removed so that the old shell can be removed and a new shell can be reinserted onto the spar. The cavity formed is then poured with the retainer material to create a new bicast lock to secure the new shell to the old spar. In another embodiment, the retainer or lock can include a TLP (transient liquid phase) powder with Boron that is then brazed to form the rigid lock or retainer. In another embodiment, a “stop-off” agent can be used on the spar side cavity to prevent the bicast material from bonding to the spar so that the bicast material can be more easily removed from the re-usable spar when the shell is to be replaced. In still another embodiment, the retainer can be formed from a sintered metal.
The spar and shell rotor blade of the present invention is for use in an industrial gas turbine engine in the first or second stage of the turbine. These blades are much larger than those used in as aero engine and therefore the weight of the shell would be an important design factor in the blade assembly. However, the bicast spar and shell rotor blade can be used in an aero engine. The turbine rotor blade is made with a spar that extends from a platform and root section all formed as a single piece or that can be formed as multiple pieces, and with a shell secured to the spar to form the airfoil portion of the blade. A tip cap can be secured to the spar tip end to form the blade tip for the blade assembly.
The shell is formed using a wire EDM process with the shell made from a high temperature exotic material that can withstand higher temperatures than the prior art turbine blades made from the investment casting process. The preferred metallic material for the present invention is Molybdenum because of the high strength capability and high temperature resistance. Tungsten is considered for use in a rotor blade, but because tungsten is very dense compared to Molybdenum it is not useful for a rotor blade because of the high centrifugal loads applied to the spar to retain the much heavier tungsten shell to the spar. Tungsten would be good for a spar and shell stator vane which does not rotate. Columbium or niobium is also considered for use as the shell material for a rotor blade.
The rotor blade with the spar and shell construction of the present invention includes a shell having an airfoil cross sectional shape with a leading edge and a trailing edge and with a pressure side wall 12 and a suction side wall 11 extending between the two edges. The shell also includes ribs 13 that extend between the two walls to provide added support for the shell. The shell ribs 13 form adjacent pairs with an opening 14 between adjacent ribs 13 that form a passage for the insertion or pouring of a material that forms the retainer described later. The ribs 13 that face a cavity 23 formed within the spar includes an opening 16 for the retainers also described below. In this embodiment, three sets of ribs 13 each having two adjacent ribs is used to form a retainer with two sections of the spar.
The spar includes two radial extending projections 21 that form locking surfaces to the shell. The spar includes a forward radial extending projection and an aft radial extending projection 22. In other embodiments, more than two radial extending projections can be used for the spar. The radial extending projections 21 and 22 have cavities 23 that face the sets of ribs 13 formed in the shell as seen in
The shell ribs 13 also include openings 15 formed on the sides that face toward the center of the opening 14 as seen in
The material used to pour into the spaces and cavities can be a bicast material, or a TLP (transient liquid phase) material such as a metal powder with Boron that is brazed to the metallic shell and spar surfaces. Also useful would be a “stop-off” agent placed on the surfaces of the spar so that when the old shell is removed the retainer will not stick to the spar so it can be easily removed. The metal powder that forms the retainer will not bond to the “stop-off” agent. Also useful as the retaining material is a sintered metal. In another embodiment, the retainer could be formed from a sintered metal.
With this design, the shell loads are transferred to the ribs, and then sheared into the spar thru the bicast material. This provides for a spar and shell rotor blade with a large load capability. The shell is well supported thru the three sets of shell ribs so that the radial load from the shell reacts into the spar at multiple radial locations. In other embodiments, the cavities could be formed in one rib or five ribs or even not in the ribs at all but in the shell wall to the spar. The bicast shear lugs can handle large shell loads with a pull of around 42,000 pounds force. This spar and shell design makes for a low coast rotor blade that is more easily repairable than the prior art rotor blades, eliminates the high tolerance problems with prior art spar and shell rotor blades, and eliminates the need for complex machining to assemble or repair a rotor blade.
The rotor blade of the spar and shell construction with the poured retainer allows for a worn or damaged shell to be more easily replaced that prior art blades.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4010531 | Andersen et al. | Mar 1977 | A |
4136516 | Corsmeier | Jan 1979 | A |
4285634 | Rossman et al. | Aug 1981 | A |
4288201 | Wilson | Sep 1981 | A |
4396349 | Hueber | Aug 1983 | A |
4473336 | Coney et al. | Sep 1984 | A |
4480956 | Kruger et al. | Nov 1984 | A |
4563125 | Boudigues et al. | Jan 1986 | A |
4645421 | Huether | Feb 1987 | A |
4790721 | Morris et al. | Dec 1988 | A |
4971641 | Nelson et al. | Nov 1990 | A |
5129787 | Violette et al. | Jul 1992 | A |
5240376 | Velicki | Aug 1993 | A |
5797725 | Rhodes | Aug 1998 | A |
6139278 | Mowbray et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
6224339 | Rhodes et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
6305905 | Nagle et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6314309 | Abdelmonem | Nov 2001 | B1 |
6533547 | Anding et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
6648597 | Widrig et al. | Nov 2003 | B1 |
6726444 | Zhao et al. | Apr 2004 | B2 |
7080971 | Wilson et al. | Jul 2006 | B2 |
7258528 | Trindade et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
7311497 | Sharma et al. | Dec 2007 | B2 |
7410342 | Matheny | Aug 2008 | B2 |