Patent attributes
The present invention is a turbine airfoil such as a rotor blade with a cooling circuit that provides convective cooling to the airfoil main body, and impingement cooling and film cooling to the outer wall of the airfoil in order to maximize the cooling while minimizing the amount of cooling air used. The blade main body includes walls of such thickness to provide sufficient structural strength to support the airfoil assembly. The blade main body includes a rib that separates a first or forward cooling air supply channel from a spent air collector cavity. Another rib separates the spent air collector cavity from a second or mid-chord cooling air supply channel. A leading edge cooling supply cavity is connected to the forward supply channel through metering and impingement holes. Film cooling holes forming a well known showerhead arrangement provides film cooling for the leading edge of the blade.
