Patent ID: 8057177

Claim:
A turbine blade, comprising: a tip shroud, the tip shroud having one or more cooling cavities defined therein; an airfoil, the airfoil having at least one coolant passage defined therein; and a plurality of exit apertures defined through an outer wall of at least one of the cooling cavities that, in use, allows a pressurized coolant to exit at least one of the cooling cavities; wherein: the coolant passage extends through the airfoil such that the coolant passage is in fluid communication with the cooling cavity; the plurality of exit apertures includes at least one round exit aperture and at least one non-round exit aperture; all of the cooling cavities defined within the tip shroud are in fluid communication with each other and define a cooling cavity; the cooling cavity comprises a plurality of ribs formed therein, the ribs being sized and configured such that at least some of the ribs extend a partial way across the distance across the cooling cavity; the cooling cavity comprises a pressure side cooling cavity, a suction side cooling cavity, and a coolant chamber, the coolant chamber comprising a chamber that resides substantially between the pressure side cooling cavity and the suction side cooling cavity; the coolant chamber is in fluid communication with the coolant passage; and the coolant chamber is in fluid communication with the pressure side cooling cavity and a suction side cooling cavity via a plurality of coolant chamber apertures.