Patent ID: 7824150

Claim:
An air cooled turbine airfoil comprising: a shell having an airfoil shape with a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a pressure side wall and a suction side wall extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge; a spar forming an internal cooling air supply channel; both the shell and the spar have a plurality of raised sections each with a circular opening on an inner side of the raised section and a narrow gap on an outer side of the raised section; a dog bone strut mounted within opposed raised sections between the shell and the spar, the dog bone strut having a figure eight cross section shape with two ends having a circular cross section shape and a narrow neck connecting the two circular ends; and, the circular openings within the raised sections and the dog bone struts form a seal between adjacent cooling channels, prevent bulging of the shell from the spar due to cooling air pressure within the cooling channels, and allow for thermal growth between the shell and the spar in a chordwise direction and a spanwise direction of the airfoil.