Advanced Turbine Blade Cooling Techniques

Gas turbine engine technology is constantly challenged to operate at higher combustor outlet temperatures. In a modern gas turbine engine, these temperatures can exceed the blade and disk material limits by 600<SUP>o</SUP>F or more, necessitating both internal and film cooling schemes in addition to the use of thermal barrier coatings. Internal convective cooling is inadequate in many blade locations, and both internal and film cooling approaches can lead to significant performance penalties in the engine.Micro Cooling Concepts has developed a turbine blade cooling concept that provides enhanced internal impingement cooling effectiveness via the use of micro-structured impingement surfaces. These surfaces significantly increase the cooling capability of the impinging flow, as compared to a conventional untextured surface. This approach can be combined with microchannel cooling and external film cooling to tailor the cooling capability per the external heating profile. The cooling system can then be optimized to minimize impact on engine performance.