Patent ID: 7484937

Claim:
A compressor blade for a gas turbine, comprising a suction and a pressure side and a blade leading and trailing edge the blade having a relatively long chord length, wherein the blade leading edge, at a blade tip area, operates at transonic and supersonic velocities, and, in at least one natural-vibration critical area, is structured such that a leading edge shock wave attaches to the blade leading edge, as a result of which an initially laminar boundary layer flow changes, at a transition point a short distance from the blade leading edge into a turbulent boundary layer flow which neither accelerates nor re-laminates within a continuous curvature extending from the blade leading edge on the suction side, thus suppressing a periodic movement of the transition point and preventing the transition point from communicating with a compression shock on the suction side; wherein the blade leading edge is structured as one of an elliptic or parabolic cross-sectional profile having an ellipse ratio (a:b) being equal to or smaller than 1 to 4 to effect attachment of the leading edge shock wave immediately to the blade leading edge.