Diverging-converging cooling passage for a turbine blade

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10260355-B2
Application number	US-201615062952-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2016
Priority date	Mar 7, 2016
Publication date	Apr 16, 2019
Grant date	Apr 16, 2019

Abstract

A turbine blade and a radial turbine having at least one blade is provided. The turbine blade includes a trailing edge and a leading edge opposite the trailing edge. The turbine blade also includes a cooling passage defined internally within the turbine blade. The cooling passage is in fluid communication with a source of cooling fluid via a single inlet to receive a cooling fluid. The cooling passage diverges at a first point downstream from the single inlet into at least two branches that extend along the at least one blade from the first point to a second point near a tip of the leading edge and the cooling passage converges at the second point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A turbine blade, comprising:
a trailing edge;
a leading edge opposite the trailing edge; and
a cooling passage defined internally within the turbine blade, the cooling passage in fluid communication with a source of cooling fluid via a single inlet to receive a cooling fluid, and the cooling passage diverges at a first point downstream from the single inlet into a first branch and a second branch that extend along the at least one blade from the first point to direct the cooling fluid to a second common point near a tip of the leading edge and the first branch and the second branch converge at the second common point.

2. The turbine blade of claim 1 , wherein the turbine blade has a pressure side opposite a suction side, the pressure side and the suction side extending from a coupling surface to an opposite second surface, the coupling surface to couple the turbine blade to a hub and a respective one of the first branch and the second branch extends along the pressure side adjacent to the first surface and the other of the first branch and the second branch extends along the suction side adjacent to the first surface.

3. The turbine blade of claim 2 , further comprising a cross flow path that fluidly interconnects the first branch and the second branch near the coupling surface at the leading edge to direct cooling fluid near the coupling surface at the leading edge.

4. The turbine blade of claim 1 , wherein the cooling passage includes a tip flow passage defined at the tip of the leading edge that is fluidly coupled to the cooling passage near the second common point.

5. The turbine blade of claim 2 , wherein the cooling passage diverges at a third point, which is downstream from the second common point, into at least two secondary branches.

6. The turbine blade of claim 5 , wherein a respective one of the at least two secondary branches extends along the pressure side adjacent to the second surface and the other of the at least two secondary branches extends along the suction side adjacent to the second surface.

7. The turbine blade of claim 5 , wherein the cooling passage converges at a fourth point, which is downstream from the third point, and diverges at a fifth point into at least two tertiary branches, and the fifth point is downstream from the fourth point.

8. The turbine blade of claim 7 , wherein the at least two tertiary branches terminate in a plurality of outlets at the trailing edge.

9. The turbine blade of claim 1 , wherein the turbine blade is a radial turbine blade.

10. A radial turbine, comprising:
a hub; and
at least one blade coupled to the hub, the at least one blade having a coupling surface that couples the at least one blade to the hub and a leading edge having a tip, the at least one blade defining an internal cooling passage, the internal cooling passage in fluid communication with a source of cooling fluid via a single inlet to receive a cooling fluid, and the internal cooling passage diverges downstream from the single inlet into a first branch and a second branch that extend along opposite sides of the coupling surface to direct the cooling fluid to a common point near the tip of the leading edge and the internal cooling passage converges at the common point near the tip.

11. The radial turbine of claim 10 , wherein the at least one blade further comprises a cross flow passage that fluidly interconnects the first branch and the second branch near the coupling surface at the leading edge to direct cooling fluid near the coupling surface at the leading edge.

12. The radial turbine of claim 10 , wherein the internal cooling passage includes a tip flow path defined at the tip of the leading edge that is fluidly coupled to the internal cooling passage to direct cooling fluid adjacent to the tip.

13. The radial turbine of claim 10 , wherein the at least one blade has a pressure side opposite a suction side that each extend along the coupling surface, and a respective one of the first branch and the second branch extends along the pressure side adjacent to the coupling surface to direct cooling fluid along the pressure side near the coupling surface and the other of the first branch and the second branch extends along the suction side adjacent to the coupling surface to direct cooling fluid along the suction side near the coupling surface.

14. The radial turbine of claim 13 , wherein the internal cooling passage diverges downstream from the convergence at the common point into at least two secondary branches.

15. The radial turbine of claim 14 , wherein the at least one blade includes a surface opposite the coupling surface, and a respective one of the at least two secondary branches extends adjacent to the pressure side near the surface and the other of the at least two secondary branches extends adjacent to the suction side near the surface.

16. The radial turbine of claim 15 , wherein the internal cooling passage converges downstream from the at least two secondary branches, and diverges further downstream into at least two tertiary branches.

17. The radial turbine of claim 16 , wherein the at least one blade includes a trailing edge opposite the leading edge, and the at least two tertiary branches terminate in a plurality of outlets at the trailing edge.

18. The radial turbine of claim 10 , wherein the radial turbine comprises an axially split radial turbine, the hub comprises a first hub portion coupled to a second hub portion, and the at least one blade comprises at least one blade segment of the first hub portion.

19. The radial turbine of claim 18 , wherein the first hub portion defines an inlet cooling fluid passage in fluid communication with the source of cooling fluid, and the single inlet is in fluid communication with the inlet cooling fluid passage of the first hub portion to receive the cooling fluid.

20. The radial turbine of claim 16 , wherein at least one of the first branch and the second branch, the at least two secondary branches and the at least two tertiary branches includes at least one heat transfer augmentation feature to increase the cooling effectiveness of the cooling fluid.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Smoke Jason
• Jan David K
• Miner Amandine
• Chase Deanna Pinar
• Kahrs Michael
• Crosatti Lorenzo

Classifications

• F01D1/08

  having inward flow · CPC title

• Y02T50/673

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F05D2260/202

  by film cooling · CPC title

• F01D5/045

  the wheel comprising two adjacent bladed wheel portions, e.g. with interengaging blades for damping vibrations · CPC title

• Y02T50/676

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic