Patent ID: 7293962

Claim:
A turbine blade or vane comprising: a shell including a first side wall and a second side wall, the first and second side walls being connected together at a leading edge at an incident flow end and at a trailing edge at a departing flow end, the first and second side walls extending longitudinally from a root to a tip; a plurality of inner ribs within the shell, the first and second side walls being connected together between the leading edge and the trailing edge by the plurality of inner ribs, the plurality of inner ribs forming at least one cooling gas path on the inside of the shell, which cooling gas path is configured and arranged to guide a cooling gas when flowing from the root to the tip and deflect said cooling gas several times in a serpentine shape from the shell outside to the shell inside and from the shell inside to the shell outside, wherein the serpentine shape cooling gas path comprises a sequence of 180° reverse bends, wherein the shell outside comprises a portion of the shell including the leading edge or the trailing edge, and wherein the shell inside comprises a portion of the shell arranged between the leading edge and the trailing edge; at least one opening in the region of at least one rib of said plurality of inner ribs, said at least one rib configured and arranged to deflect the cooling gas flow from the outside to the inside, said at least one opening comprising (a) at least one bypass opening penetrating said at least one rib at the shell, or (b) at least one outlet opening penetrating the shell at at least one rib, or both (a) and (b), said at least one opening being positioned (c) at the leading edge or (d) at the trailing edge; and wherein the serpentine shape cooling gas path and the at least one opening are together positioned and arranged to guide all of the cooling gas when flowing inside said shell to flow through said sequence of 180° reverse bends or through said at least one opening.