The present subject matter relates generally to a gas turbine engine airfoil, and more particularly, to a cooling passage leading to a trailing edge of the airfoil.
In a gas turbine engine, air is pressurized in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor for generating hot combustion gases. The hot gases are channeled through various stages of a turbine which extract energy therefrom for powering the compressor and producing work. The turbine stages often include stationary metal turbine nozzles having a row of vanes that channel the hot combustion gases into a corresponding row of rotor blades. Over time, the heat generated in the combustion process can rapidly wear the turbine vanes and blades, thereby reducing their usable life. This wear can be especially pronounced at the thin trailing edge of an airfoil.
In some engines, the turbine vanes and turbine blades both have corresponding hollow airfoils that can receive cooling air. Cooling air can be directed through the airfoils before being exhausted through one or more slots near an airfoil's trailing edge. Often, the cooling air is compressor discharge air that is diverted from the combustion process. Although diverting air from the combustion process helps prevent damage to the turbine airfoils, it can decrease the amount of air available for combustion, thus decreasing the overall efficiency of the engine.
Aerodynamic and cooling performance of the trailing edge cooling slots can be related to the specific configuration of the cooling slots and the intervening partitions. The flow area of the cooling slots regulates the flow of cooling air discharged through the cooling slots, and the geometry of the cooling slots affects cooling performance thereof. For instance, the divergence or diffusion angle of a cooling slot can affect undesirable flow separation of the discharged cooling air that would degrade performance and cooling effectiveness of the discharged air. This might also increase losses that impact turbine efficiency.
Notwithstanding, the small size of the outlet lands and the cooling performance of the trailing edge cooling slots, the thin trailing edges of turbine airfoils oftentimes limit the life of those airfoils due to the high operating temperature thereof in the hostile environment of a gas turbine engine.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an airfoil having improved durability and engine performance. It is also desired to minimize the amount of cooling flow used for trailing edge cooling and maximize fuel efficiency of the gas turbine engine.
Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a ceramic airfoil is provided. The ceramic airfoil may include a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a pair of sidewalls. The trailing edge may be positioned downstream from the leading edge in a chordwise direction. The pair of sidewalls may include a suction sidewall and a pressure sidewall spaced apart in a widthwise direction and extending in the chordwise direction between the leading edge and the trailing edge. The pair of sidewalls may also define cooling cavity and a plurality of internal cooling passages downstream of the cooling cavity to receive a pressurized cooling airflow. The internal cooling passages may be defined across a diffusion section with a set diffusion length. The pressure sidewall may further include a breakout lip at a set aperture width from the suction sidewall to define an exit aperture. The internal cooling passage may include an inlet upstream from the diffusion section having a set inlet area cross section, further wherein the exit aperture includes a set breakout area cross section having a breakout ratio relative to the inlet area cross-section between about 1 and about 3.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, a ceramic airfoil is provided. The ceramic airfoil may include a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a pair of sidewalls. The trailing edge may be positioned downstream from the leading edge in a chordwise direction. The pair of sidewalls may include a suction sidewall and a pressure sidewall spaced apart in a widthwise direction and extending in the chordwise direction between the leading edge and the trailing edge. The pair of sidewalls may also define cooling cavity and a plurality of internal cooling passages downstream of the cooling cavity to receive a pressurized cooling airflow. The internal cooling passages may be defined across a diffusion section at a constant diffusion width and expansion angle. The expansion angle may be between about 3° and about 15°. The pressure sidewall may further include a breakout lip at a set aperture width from the suction sidewall to define an exit aperture.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, a ceramic airfoil is provided. The ceramic airfoil may include a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a pair of sidewalls. The trailing edge may be positioned downstream from the leading edge in a chordwise direction. The pair of sidewalls may include a suction sidewall and a pressure sidewall spaced apart in a widthwise direction and extending in the chordwise direction between the leading edge and the trailing edge. The pair of sidewalls may also define cooling cavity and a plurality of internal cooling passages downstream of the cooling cavity to receive a pressurized cooling airflow. The internal cooling passages may be defined across a diffusion section with a set diffusion length. The pressure sidewall may further include a breakout lip having a set lip width at a set aperture width from the suction sidewall. The breakout lip may include a predetermined lip ratio of lip width over aperture width. The predetermined lip ratio may be between about 0 and about 2.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to present embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The detailed description uses numerical and letter designations to refer to features in the drawings. Like or similar designations in the drawings and description have been used to refer to like or similar parts of the invention. Although reference may be made to one or more dimension, ratio, or geometry shown in a corresponding figure, it is understood that the figures are intended for illustrative purposes only, and may not be drawn to scale.
As used herein, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third” may be used interchangeably to distinguish one component from another and are not intended to signify location or importance of the individual components. The terms “upstream” and “downstream” refer to the relative flow direction with respect to fluid flow in a fluid pathway. For example, “upstream” refers to the flow direction from which the fluid flows, and “downstream” refers to the flow direction to which the fluid flows.
The terms “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. “Substantially,” “about,” and “generally,” as used herein, are all relative terms indicating as close to the desired value as can reasonably be achieved within conventional manufacturing tolerances
Referring now to the drawings,
As shown, the exemplary turbofan 10 of
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Referring to
Generally, the airfoil 28 has an oppositely-disposed pair of sidewalls 42, 44 spaced apart in a widthwise direction W. The pair of sidewalls 42, 44 includes a generally convex pressure sidewall 42 and a generally concave suction sidewall 44 that extend longitudinally or radially outwardly along the span S from the airfoil base 36 to the airfoil tip 38. The sidewalls 42, 44 also extend axially in the chordwise direction C between the leading edge 46 and the downstream trailing edge 48. The airfoil 28 is substantially hollow with the pressure sidewall 42 and suction sidewall 44 defining an internal cooling cavity or circuit 50 therein for circulating pressurized cooling air or coolant flow 51 during operation. In some exemplary embodiments, the pressurized cooling air or coolant flow 51 is from the portion of pressurized air 40 diverted from the compressor 14 (see
The airfoil 28 increases in width W or widthwise from the airfoil leading edge 46 to a maximum width aft therefrom before converging to a relatively thin or sharp airfoil trailing edge 48. The size of the internal cooling circuit 50, therefore, varies with the width W of the airfoil 28, and is relatively thin immediately forward of the trailing edge 48 where the two sidewalls 42, 44 join together and form a thin trailing edge 48 portion of the airfoil 28. One or more spanwise extending cooling passages 52 is provided at or near the trailing edge 48 of the airfoil 28 and facilitates airfoil cooling.
In certain embodiments, one or more portion of the airfoil 28 may be formed from a relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion material, including, but not limited to, a ceramic material and/or coating on another base material. In some embodiments, the ceramic material is a matrix composite (CMC). For example, in an example embodiment, the suction sidewall 44 and the pressure sidewall 42 are each formed from a CMC to define the internal cooling passages 52. Advantageously, this may increase the potential operating temperatures within the engine and allow higher engine efficiency to be realized. Moreover, in some embodiments, advantageous geometries may be achieved without rendering the airfoil unsuitable for use in a high-temperature region of a gas turbine engine.
Turning to the exemplary embodiment of
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Generally, the inlet 54 communicates with the cooling passage 50 to receive the cooling flow 51 (see
After passing through the diffusion section 58, the exit aperture 60 directs air toward the trailing edge 48 across a cooling slot 64. As shown, the slot 64 has a slot floor 66 extending toward the trailing edge 48. Generally, the cooling slot 64 begins at a breakout 62 of the exit aperture 60 downstream from the diverging section 58. Optionally, the cooling slots 64 may include a slot floor 66 that is open and exposed to the hot combustion gases passing through a high pressure turbine (see also
One or more heights H (e.g., maximum heights) of the cooling passage 52 is defined between an upper passage surface 70 and a lower passage surface 72 in the spanwise direction S. Each of the upper passage surface 70 and the lower passage surface 72 is formed on adjacent partitions 68. The partitions 68 may also serve to define an overall passage length LO in the chordwise direction C. As shown, the overall passage length LO may be defined between the inlet 54 and the breakout 62. As a result, the metering section 56, the diffusion section 58, and the cooling slot 64 have downstream extending lengths LM, LD, and LS, respectively. For instance, the lengths LO, LM, LD, and LS may each be maximum lengths in the chordwise direction C.
In some embodiments, the metering section is formed between the inlet 54 and the diffusion section 58 to have a constant height HM. Moreover, the metering section 56 may be defined between two substantially parallel segments along the chordwise direction C. In other words, the upper passage surface 70 and the lower passage surface 72 will be generally parallel along the metering length LM. In optional embodiments, the metering section 56 will define a constant cross sectional area, e.g., HM*WM (see
Generally, the diffusion section 58 may have a constant diffusion or expansion angle θ1 configured to diffuse the air flowing through the cooling passages 52. As shown, the expansion angle θ1 is defined along the upper passage surface 70 and lower passage surface 72 between the metering section 56 and the exit aperture 60. As a result, in some embodiments, the height H of the cooling passages 52 will generally increase along the chordwise direction C between the metering section 56 and the exit aperture 60, i.e., along the diffusion length LD.
Optionally, the expansion angle θ1 may be defined relative to the chordwise direction C substantially parallel to the central engine axis A (see
Turning to
Although the cooling passages 52 may be formed to various suitable dimensions, certain embodiments of the cooling passage 52 are formed to maintain one or more predetermined ratios within the passage. In some embodiments, this includes a metering length ratio R1 between the set metering length LM and the constant passage width WP across the cooling passage 52, i.e., R1=LM/WP. Generally, the metering length ratio is between about 2 and about 3.
With respect to
At the breakout 62, the pressure sidewall 42 defines a breakout lip 80 extending in the widthwise direction W between the external pressure surface 78 and the internal pressure surface 74. As a result, the breakout lip 80 includes a width WL that bounds the exit aperture 60 at least one side. Together, the breakout lip 80 and the internal suction surface 76 define the exit aperture 60 with the upper and lower passage surfaces 70, 72. As a result, the exit aperture 60 may include an aperture width WB extending between the internal suction surface 76 and the lip 80. As noted above, the cooling passage width WP may be substantially constant. In such embodiments, the aperture width WB will be set equal to the passage width WP. In other words, the aperture width WB may be the same as the passage width WP.
Another predetermined ratio might be formed between the breakout lip 80 and the width WB of the cooling passage 52 at the exit aperture 60. Optional embodiments include a predetermined lip R3 ratio of the breakout lip width WL and the cooling passage width WP, i.e., R3=WL/WB. Specifically, in some embodiments the predetermined lip ratio is less than 2, between about 0 and about 2. In further embodiments, the predetermined lip ratio is less than 1, between about 0.5 and about 1.0. In still further embodiments, the predetermined lip ratio is less than 0.5 between about 0 and about 0.5. The aforementioned lip ratios may facilitate advantageous film cooling without rendering the airfoil 28 unstable and unsuitable for high-temperature operations.
As noted above, and shown with respect to
As shown, in some embodiments, the internal pressure surface 74 and the internal suction surface 76 are each parallel through the entire metering and diffusion lengths LM, LD. In some embodiments, the internal pressure surface 74 is flat or planar through the entire metering and diffusing sections 56, 58 and their corresponding metering and diffusion lengths LM, LD of the cooling passage 52. Similarly, in additional or alternative embodiments, the internal suction surface 76 is flat or planar through the entire metering and diffusion sections 56, 58 and their corresponding metering and diffusion lengths LM, LD. Moreover, each cooling passage 52 may be substantially free of obstructions or diversions. As a result, each cooling passage 52 may form a singular unobstructed passage from the cooling cavity 50 to the exit aperture 60. In addition, each cooling slot 64 may be similarly free from obstruction for the flow of air to the trailing edge 48.
In the illustrated embodiments of
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This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they include structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.