US 12,221,898 B2
Turbine incorporating splitters
Jeffrey Donald Clements, Mason, OH (US); Paul Hadley Vitt, Liberty Township, OH (US); Francesco Bertini, Turin (IT); Aspi Rustom Wadia, Loveland, OH (US); Ganesh Seshadri, Bangalore (IN); Mahendran Manoharan, Bangalore (IN); and Ravikanth Avancha, Bangalore (IN)
Assigned to General Electric Company, Evendale, OH (US); and GE Avio S.r.l., Rivalta di Torino (IT)
Appl. No. 16/490,416
Filed by General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US); and GE Avio S.r.l., Rivalta di Torino (IT)
PCT Filed Mar. 6, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/055480
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 30, 2019,
PCT Pub. No. WO2018/162485, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 13, 2018.
Claims priority of application No. 17425027 (EP), filed on Mar. 9, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0049014 A1, Feb. 13, 2020
Int. Cl. F01D 5/14 (2006.01); F01D 5/28 (2006.01); F01D 9/04 (2006.01); F04D 29/32 (2006.01)
CPC F01D 5/145 (2013.01) [F01D 5/284 (2013.01); F01D 9/041 (2013.01); F04D 29/324 (2013.01); F05D 2240/12 (2013.01); F05D 2300/6033 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
4. A turbine apparatus, comprising:
a turbine rotor stage including a disk rotatable about a centerline axis, the disk defining a rotor flowpath surface, and an array of axial-flow turbine blades extending outward from the rotor flowpath surface, the turbine blades defining spaces therebetween;
a turbine nozzle stage comprising at least one wall defining a stator flowpath surface, and an array of axial-flow turbine vanes extending away from the stator flowpath surface, the turbine vanes defining spaces therebetween; and
wherein at least one of the rotor or nozzle stages includes an array of splitter airfoils extending from at least one of the flowpath surface thereof,
wherein the splitter airfoils are disposed in the spaces between the turbine blades or turbine vanes of the corresponding stage,
wherein the splitter airfoils have a thickness ratio which is less than a thickness ratio of the corresponding turbine blades—or turbine vanes, and
wherein each of the splitter airfoils only extends partially in a radial direction between an outer band and an inner band of the turbine rotor stage or the turbine nozzle stage so as to form a radial gap between a radial tip of each of the splitter airfoils and the inner band or the outer band.