Patent ID: 8550785

Claim:
A turbine engine, comprising: a rotor assembly including at least one row of turbine blades extending radially outward from a rotor, wherein a root of at least one turbine blade is coupled to a rotor disc and extends radially outward therefrom; at least one rotor sealing plate offset axially from the root of the at least one turbine blade such that a gap is formed between the rotor sealing plate and the root of the at least one turbine blade; wherein the gap forms a portion of a cooling fluid channel of a turbine blade cooling system; a first axially extending seal arm extending axially from the root of the turbine blade towards the rotor sealing plate having a radially inner surface positioned at an acute angle such that an axially outer end of the first axially extending seal arm is radially outward from an intersection between the radially inner surface and the turbine blade; a second axially extending seal arm extending axially from the rotor disc towards the rotor sealing plate having a radially outer surface positioned at an acute angle such that an axially outer end of the second axially extending seal arm is radially outward from an intersection between the radially outer surface and the turbine blade; wherein each of the first axially extending seal arm, the second axially extending seal arm and the rotor sealing plate form a portion of a seal cavity having a teardrop shaped cross-section; and a teardrop shaped seal filling at least a portion of the seal cavity and positioned in the seal cavity for metering cooling fluid flow through the cooling fluid channel and past the gap.