Patent ID: 8167560

Claim:
A turbine airfoil, comprising: a generally elongated hollow airfoil formed from an outer wall, and having a leading edge, a trailing edge, a pressure side, a suction side, a root at a first end of the airfoil and a tip at a second end opposite to the first end, and a cooling system positioned within interior aspects of the generally elongated hollow airfoil; at least one cooling channel of the cooling system in the generally elongated hollow airfoil formed from an inner surface; a plurality of turbulators extending from the inner surface into the at least one cooling channel and positioned nonorthogonally and nonlinearly to a longitudinal axis of the at least one cooling channel; and a plurality of vortex enhancers protruding from the inner surface of the at least one cooling channel, skewed such that the vortex enhancers are positioned nonorthogonally and nonlinearly to the turbulators and extending between turbulators; wherein at least one of the vortex enhancers has a height less than a height of the turbulators.