Patent ID: 7600972

Claim:
A method for assembling a rotor assembly for a gas turbine engine, said method comprising: providing a first rotor blade that includes an airfoil, a platform, a shank, an internal cavity, and a dovetail, wherein the airfoil extends radially outward from the platform, the platform includes a radially outer surface and a radially inner, surface, the shank extends radially inward from the platform defined therein, and the dovetail extends from the shank, such that the internal cavity is defined at least partially by the airfoil, the platform, the shank, and the dovetail, and wherein one wall of the shank is convex; coupling the first rotor blade to a rotor shaft using the dovetail such that during engine operation, cooling air is channeled from the blade internal cavity through a blade impingement cooling circuit for impingement cooling the first rotor blade platform radially inner surface; positioning a seal pin within at least one of a leading edge seal pin cavity and a trailing edge seal pin cavity defined within the shank and adjacent to the convex wall of the shank; and coupling a second rotor blade to the rotor shaft such that a platform gap is defined between the first and second rotor blade platforms, and such that during operation a portion of a trailing edge of the first rotor blade platform is facilitated to be cooled by cooling air channeled through a recessed portion of the platform.