Patent ID: 7128533

Claim:
A turbine blade, comprising: a generally elongated blade having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a tip at a first end, a root coupled to the blade at a platform generally opposite the first end for supporting the blade and for coupling the blade to a disc, at least one cavity forming a cooling system in the blade, and at least one outer wall defining the at least one cavity forming at least a portion of the cooling system; wherein the cooling system comprises at least one leading edge cooling chamber having at least one metering hole controlling the flow of cooling fluids into the leading edge cooling chamber generally tangent to an inner surface forming a portion of the leading edge cooling chamber; at least one trailing edge cooling chamber having at least one trailing edge supply orifice positioned to pass cooling fluids into the trailing edge cooling chamber to form a vortex in the trailing edge cooling chamber; at least one suction side mid-chord cooling chamber positioned between the at least one leading edge cooling chamber and the at least one trailing edge cooling chamber, positioned proximate to a suction side of the generally elongated blade, and including at least one bleed slot positioned to pass cooling fluids into the suction side mid-chord cooling chamber to form a vortex in the suction side mid-chord cooling chamber; and at least one pressure side mid-chord cooling chamber positioned between the at least one leading edge cooling chamber and the at least one trailing edge cooling chamber, positioned proximate to the pressure side of the generally elongated blade, and including at least one bleed slot positioned to pass cooling fluids into the pressure side mid-chord cooling chamber to form a vortex in the pressure side mid-chord cooling chamber.