Bore tube assembly for steam cooling a turbine rotor

Patent · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:874655

DeStefano, Thomas Daniel ^[1]; Wilson, Ian David ^[2]

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1. Ballston Lake, NY
2. Clifton Park, NY

An axial bore tube assembly for a turbine is provided to supply cooling steam to hot gas components of the turbine wheels and return the spent cooling steam. A pair of inner and outer tubes define a steam supply passage concentric about an inner return passage. The forward ends of the tubes communicate with an end cap assembly having sets of peripheral holes communicating with first and second sets of radial tubes whereby cooling steam from the concentric passage is supplied through the end cap holes to radial tubes for cooling the buckets and return steam from the buckets is provided through the second set of radial tubes through a second set of openings of the end cap into the coaxial return passage. A radial-to-axial flow transitioning device, including anti-swirling vanes is provided in the end cap. A strut ring adjacent the aft end of the bore tube assembly permits axial and radial thermal expansion of the inner tube relative to the outer tube.

• Research Organization: General Electric Company (Schenectady, NY)
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-95MC31176
• Assignee: General Electric Company (Schenectady, NY)
• Patent Number(s): US 6435812
• OSTI ID: 874655
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/415/416/
adjacent
anti-swirling
assembly
axial
axial bore
axial flow
bore
buckets
cap
coaxial
communicate
communicating
components
concentric
cooling
define
device
expansion
flow
forward
gas
gas component
holes
hot
hot gas
including
inner
openings
outer
pair
passage
peripheral
permits
provided
radial
radial-to-axial
return
rotor
set
sets
spent
steam
strut
supplied
supply
thermal
thermal expansion
transitioning
tube
tubes
turbine
vanes
wheels