Patent ID: 7665955

Claim:
A turbine blade outer air seal, comprising: an outer seal housing having at least one outer sealing plate with a curvature that follows a rotational path of a tip of a turbine blade; a cooling fluid collection chamber positioned in the outer seal housing and including an inlet for receiving cooling fluids from a cooling fluid supply source; at least one vortex cooling channel in the outer seal housing, positioned proximate to an outer sealing surface of the outer sealing plate; at least one vortex channel feed hole extending through a rib separating the cooling fluid collection chamber and the at least one vortex cooling channel to place the at least one vortex cooling channel in fluid communication with the cooling fluid collection chamber; wherein the at least one vortex channel feed hole tangentially intersects an outer surface forming the at least one vortex cooling channel such that cooling fluids flowing from the at least one vortex channel feed hole into the at least one vortex cooling channel flow along the outer surface of the at least one vortex cooling channel and form a vortex therein: wherein the at least one vortex cooling channel extends from a position proximate to an upstream edge of the at least one outer sealing plate to a downstream edge of the at least one outer sealing plate such that cooling fluids may be exhausted through an exhaust orifice in the downstream edge; wherein the at least one vortex cooling channel comprises a plurality of vortex cooling channels extending from a position proximate to the upstream edge of the at least one outer sealing plate to the downstream edge of the at least one outer sealing plate such that cooling fluids may be exhausted through exhaust orifices in the downstream edge, wherein each vortex cooling channel forms an independent cooling channel; and at least one side edge exhaust orifice extending between a first side edge of the at least one outer sealing plate and one of the plurality of vortex cooling channels in closest proximity to the first side edge of the at least one outer sealing plate.