Patent ID: 8079810

Claim:
A turbine airfoil, comprising: a generally elongated airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge and at least one cavity forming a cooling system in the airfoil; an outer wall forming the generally elongated airfoil and having at least one divergent film cooling hole positioned in the outer wall and providing a cooling fluid pathway between the at least one cavity forming the cooling system and an environment outside of the airfoil; wherein the at least one divergent film cooling hole includes a first section extending from an inner surface of the outer wall into the outer wall and a second section extending the first section and terminating at an outer surface of the outer wall; wherein a bottom surface of the second section is generally planar and extends from an intersection at the first and second sections toward the outer surface of the outer wall at an angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the at least one divergent film cooling hole of between about five degrees and about fifteen degrees; wherein a first side surface of the second section is positioned at an angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the at least one divergent film cooling hole of between about five degrees and about fifteen degrees; wherein a second side surface of the second section, which is generally opposite to the first side surface, is positioned at an angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the at least one divergent film cooling hole of between about five degrees and about fifteen degrees; and wherein the first side surface is positioned at an angle of between about ten degrees and about forty five degrees from a plane orthogonal to the bottom surface and parallel to the longitudinal axis.