Patent 8656722 was granted and assigned to United Technologies on February, 2014 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method for cooling components of a gas turbine engine, having first and second sets of components that require cooling, includes removing thermal energy from cooling air, directing the cooling air from which thermal energy has been removed to the first set of components of the gas turbine engine, and transferring thermal energy away from the second set of components of the gas turbine engine using a vaporization cycle of a vapor cooling assembly. Use of the vaporization cycle offsets thermal energy removed from the cooling air.