The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to baffles for impingement cooling of airfoils for gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a method and casting core for forming a landing for welding a baffle inserted in an airfoil.
Gas turbine engines, such as those used to power modem commercial aircraft, to power sea vessels, to generate electrical power, and in industrial applications, include a compressor for pressurizing a supply of air, a combustor for burning a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine for extracting energy from the resultant combustion gases. Generally, the compressor, combustor and turbine are disposed about a central engine axis with the compressor disposed axially upstream of the combustor and the turbine disposed axially downstream of the combustor. In operation of a gas turbine engine, fuel is injected into and combusted in the combustor in compressed air from the compressor thereby generating high-temperature combustion exhaust gases, which pass through the turbine in order to produce rotational shaft power. The shaft power is used to turn a turbine for driving a compressor to provide air to the combustion process to generate the high energy gases. Additionally, the shaft power is used to power a secondary turbine to, for example, drive a generator for producing electricity, or to produce high momentum gases for producing thrust.
The turbine includes a plurality of turbine stages, wherein each stage includes a stator section formed by a row of stationary vanes followed by a rotor section formed by a row of rotating blades. In each turbine stage, the upstream row of stationary vanes directs the combustion exhaust gases against the downstream row of blades. In order to produce gases having sufficient energy to drive both the compressor and the secondary turbine, it is necessary to compress the air to elevated temperatures and to combust the air, which again increases the temperature. Thus, the vanes and blades, each having an airfoil, are subjected to extremely high temperatures of the combustion exhaust gases, often times exceeding the melting point of the alloys used to make the airfoils.
The airfoils are maintained at temperatures below their melting point by, among other things, cooling the airfoils with a supply of relatively cooler air that is typically siphoned from the compressor. The cooling air is directed into the blade or vane to provide cooling of the airfoil through various modes, including impingement cooling. Specifically, the cooling air is passed into an interior of the airfoil through one or more cooling cavities in the airfoil to remove heat from the alloy. In some implementations, the cooling air is directed into one or more baffles installed within the cooling cavities in the airfoil and having a plurality of cooling holes. Cooling air flowing through the cooling holes of the baffle impinges on and flows against an interior surface of the airfoil. The cooling air then moves through film cooling holes in the airfoil to pass over the outer surface of the airfoil to prevent the hot gases from contacting the vane or blade.
As a general matter, the cooling air effectiveness of the baffle in cooling the airfoil is dependent upon the size of the impingement distance between the side portion of the baffle and the airfoil. Typically, there is an optimum distance between the baffle and the airfoil where cooling effectiveness is maximized. If the distance between the baffle and the airfoil is greater than the optimum distance, the cooling air disperses too much and the cooling effectiveness decreases. On the other hand, when the distance between the baffle and the airfoil is less than the optimum distance, the cooling air does not turbulate or expand sufficiently and the cooling effectiveness decreases. Also, when there are two baffles disposed in the same cooling cavity (i.e., one welded to the outer platform and one welded to the inner platform), the cooling air effectiveness of the baffles is affected by the distance (or gap) between the bottom of the two baffles inside the cooling cavity of the airfoil, with a smaller gap providing a greater amount of impingement cooling than a larger gap.
Baffles are hollow, sheet metal sock structures manufactured separately from the airfoil and later welded to landings on the platforms of the blades or vanes provided for that purpose. The blades or vanes, including the platforms and the airfoil, are typically manufactured using investment casting, a known technique for forming metallic components having complex geometries, especially hollow gas turbine engine components. During the investment casting process, the surfaces of platforms of the blades or vanes, including the baffle landings, are initially formed by wax, which can result in relatively high tolerances for the distance between the platforms that, in turn, determines the length of the airfoil cooling cavity into which the baffles are inserted. In addition, the surface profiles of the baffle landings initially formed on the platforms by wax are undulated, also resulting in relatively high surface tolerances. The relatively high tolerances for these landings can create problems when inserting the baffles into the cooling cavities of the airfoil.
For example, these relatively high tolerances can create relatively significant variability in the gap left between the baffle and the airfoil when the baffle is welded to the platform baffle landings. This is of particular concern where the cooling cavity is conic with large fillets and the baffle follows the conic shape of the cooling cavity. These relatively high tolerances can also create relatively significant variability in the gap left between two baffles when welded to the baffle landings at opposite ends of the cooling cavity. These gaps between the baffles and the airfoil and between the baffles themselves affect the cooling air effectiveness of the baffles as discussed previously. Similarly, if the distance between the inner platform and outer platform is too small as a result of the cumulative tolerances, there may not be sufficient length in the cooling cavity to insert two baffles as they would clash in the cooling cavity rather than leaving a gap. There is, therefore, a need to provide less variability in the location of the baffles inserted into the cooling cavities of airfoils when the baffles are welded to the baffle landings of the blades or vanes.
A method and casting core for forming a landing for welding a baffle inserted into an airfoil are disclosed, wherein the baffle landing of the blade or vane is formed in investment casting by the casting core rather than by wax, reducing tolerances and variability in the location of the baffle inserted into the cooling cavity of airfoil when the baffle is welded to the baffle landing.
According to one embodiment, a method of forming a landing for welding a baffle inserted into a cooling cavity of an airfoil is provided. The method comprises the steps of forming a casting core having a first portion in the shape of the landing, overmolding the casting core with wax to form a casting pattern having a first portion in the shape of the landing, shelling the casting pattern with a shell, removing the casting pattern to form a void between the shell and the casting core, pouring metal into the void to surround the casting core, and removing the shell, wherein the landing is formed by the first portion of the casting core in the shape of the landing.
In another embodiment, a method of forming a first landing for welding a first baffle inserted into a cooling cavity of an airfoil and a second landing for welding a second baffle inserted into the cooling cavity is provided. The method comprises the steps of forming a casting core having a first portion in the shape of the first landing and a second portion in the shape of the second landing, overmolding the casting core with wax to form a casting pattern having a first portion in the shape of the first landing and a second portion in the shape of the second landing, shelling the casting pattern with a shell, removing the casting pattern to form a void between the shell and the casting core, pouring metal into the void to surround the casting core, and removing the shell, wherein the first landing is formed by the first portion of the casting core in the shape of the first landing and the second landing is formed by the second portion of the casting core in the shape of the second landing.
In yet another embodiment, a casting core for forming a first landing for welding a first baffle inserted into a cooling cavity of an airfoil is provided, wherein a first portion of the casting core is the shape of the first landing.
For a further understanding of the disclosure, reference will be made to the following detailed description which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:
Returning to
The outer diameter end of the airfoil 20 mates with the outer platform 12, and the inner diameter end of the airfoil 20 mates with the inner platform 14. The airfoil 20 has a leading edge 22, a trailing edge 24, a pressure side 26, and a suction side 28. High temperature gas G flows across the vane 10, impinges on leading edge 22 of the airfoil 20 and flows across the pressure side 26 and he suction side 28 of the airfoil 20. The pressure side 26 and the suction side 28 of the airfoil 20 redirect the flow of high temperature gas G received at the leading edge 22 such that, after passing by the trailing edge 24, the incidence of high temperature gas G on the subsequent rotor blade stage is optimized. As such, more work can be extracted from the interaction of high temperature gas G with downstream blades.
The efficiency of the gas turbine engine is also improved by increasing the temperature to which the vane 10 can be subjected. For example, the vane 10 is often positioned immediately downstream of a combustor section of a gas turbine engine where the temperature of high temperature gas G is hottest. The airfoil 20 is, therefore, subjected to a concentrated, steady stream of high temperature gas G during operation of the gas turbine engine. The extremely elevated temperatures of combustion high temperature gas G often exceed the melting point of the material forming the vane 10. The airfoil 20 is therefore cooled using cooling air A provided by, for example, relatively cooler air bled from a compressor section within the gas turbine engine and forced through a plurality of cooling cavities 30, 32 in the airfoil 20, including a leading edge cooling cavity 30 and a trailing edge cavity 32. Both the inner platform 14 and the outer platform 12 have a non-gas path side 16, where the cooling air A flows, and a gas-path side 18 where the high temperature gas G flows.
In this exemplary embodiment shown in
As can be seen in
The casting core is placed in a die and then overmolded 130 with an easily sacrificed material such as a natural or synthetic wax. The overmolded casting core forms a casting pattern with an exterior shape largely corresponding to the exterior shape of the airfoil 20 and platforms 12, 14. The casting pattern may then be assembled 132 to a shelling fixture (e.g., via wax welding between end plates of the fixture). The casting pattern may then be shelled 134 (e.g., via one or more stages of slurry dipping, slurry spraying, or the like). After the shell is built up, it may be dried 136. The drying provides the shell with at least sufficient strength or other physical integrity properties to permit subsequent processing. For example, the shell containing the invested casting core may be disassembled 138 fully or partially from the shelling fixture and then transferred 140 to a dewaxer (e.g., a steam autoclave). In the dewaxer, a steam dewax process 142 removes a major portion of the wax leaving the casting core secured within the shell. The shell and casting core will largely form the ultimate mold. However, the dewax process typically leaves a wax or byproduct hydrocarbon residue on the shell interior and the casting core.
After the dewax, the shell is transferred 144 to a furnace (e.g., containing air or other oxidizing atmosphere) in which it is heated 146 to strengthen the shell and remove any remaining wax residue (e.g., by vaporization) and/or converting hydrocarbon residue to carbon. Oxygen in the atmosphere reacts with the carbon to form carbon dioxide. Removal of the carbon is advantageous to reduce or eliminate the formation of detrimental carbides in the metal casting. Removing carbon offers the additional advantage of reducing the potential for clogging the vacuum pumps used in subsequent stages of operation.
The mold may be removed from the atmospheric furnace, allowed to cool, and inspected 148. The mold may be seeded 150 by placing a metallic seed in the mold to establish the ultimate crystal structure of a directionally solidified (DS) casting or a single-crystal (SX) casting. The present teachings may be applied to other DS and SX casting techniques (e.g., wherein the shell geometry defines a grain selector) or to casting of other microstructures. The mold may be transferred 152 to a casting furnace (e.g., placed atop a chill plate in the furnace). The casting furnace may be pumped down to vacuum 154 or charged with anon-oxidizing atmosphere (e.g., inert gas) to prevent oxidation of the casting alloy. The casting furnace is heated 156 to preheat the mold. This preheating serves two purposes: to further harden and strengthen the shell, and to preheat the shell for the introduction of molten alloy to prevent thermal shock and premature solidification of the alloy.
After preheating and while still under vacuum conditions, the molten alloy is poured 158 into the mold and the mold is allowed to cool to solidify 160 the alloy (e.g., after withdrawal from the furnace hot zone). After solidification, the vacuum may be broken 162 and the chilled mold removed 164 from the casting furnace. The shell may be removed in a deshelling process 166 (e.g., mechanical breaking of the shell).
The casting core is removed in a decoring process 168 to leave a cast article (e.g., a metallic precursor of the ultimate part). The cast article may be machined 170, chemically and/or thermally treated 172 and coated 174 to form the ultimate part. Some or all of any machining or chemical or thermal treatment may be performed before the decoring.
With reference again to
With reference again to
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of description, not limitation. Specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention. While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the exemplary embodiments as illustrated in the drawing, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will also recognize the equivalents that may be substituted for elements described with reference to the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Therefore, it is intended that the present disclosure not be limited to the particular embodiment(s) disclosed as, but that the disclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/223,861, filed Jul. 29, 2016 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,077,494, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/981,630, filed Dec. 30, 2010, which is patented as U.S. Pat. No. 9,403,208, issued Aug. 2, 2016, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
The invention was made with U.S. Government support under contract No. N00019-02-C-3003 awarded by the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Government may have certain rights in the invention.
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Child | 15223861 | US |