Patent ID: 8920122

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 center turbulators extending from the inner surface into the at least one cooling channel and forming a set of center turbulators that are positioned nonorthogonally and nonparallel relative to a longitudinal axis of the at least one cooling channel; at least one outer turbulator extending from the inner surface into the at least one cooling channel and positioned nonorthogonally and nonparallel relative to the longitudinal axis of the at least one cooling channel; wherein the at least one outer turbulator has a leading edge that is positioned radially outward from the longitudinal axis and a trailing edge that is positioned radially outward further from the longitudinal axis than a trailing edge of the center turbulators; wherein the at least one outer turbulator is offset in a downstream direction from at least one of the center turbulators; wherein the set of center turbulators is formed from a right side set of center turbulators and a left side set of center turbulators, wherein the right side set of center turbulators extend nonorthogonally and nonparallel relative to the longitudinal axis and are a mirror image of the left side set of center turbulators such that leading edges of center turbulators from the right side set are aligned and trailing edges of center turbulators from the left side set and trailing edges of the right side set are positioned downstream from the leading edges and radially outward from the longitudinal axis in generally opposite directions; wherein a center gap separates the right side set of center turbulators from the left side set of center turbulators; wherein the at least one outer turbulator is formed from a set of outer turbulators having a first set of outer turbulators offset to a right side of the longitudinal axis and a second set of outer turbulators offset to a left side of the longitudinal axis, wherein an outer gap extending between leading edges of a radially adjacent outer turbulators is larger than the center gap; and wherein the right side set of center turbulators is positioned at a same angle relative to the longitudinal axis as the right side set of outer turbulators; and wherein the left side set of center turbulators is positioned at a same angle relative to the longitudinal axis as the left side set of outer turbulators.