Patent ID: 8011888

Claim:
An air cooled turbine rotor blade comprising: an airfoil having an airfoil cross sectional shape with a leading edge and a trailing edge, and a pressure side wall and a suction side wall both extending between the two edges; a leading edge cooling air supply channel positioned adjacent to a leading edge region of the airfoil; a leading edge impingement cooling cavity located on the leading edge of the airfoil; a row of metering and impingement holes connecting the leading edge cooling air supply channel to the leading edge impingement cooling cavity to provide impingement cooling to a backside surface of the leading edge of the airfoil; a showerhead arrangement of film cooling holes connected to the leading edge impingement cooling cavity; a suction side tip cooling channel connected to the leading edge cooling air supply channel and extending to the trailing edge of the airfoil; a row of suction side tip cooling holes connected to the suction side tip cooling channel; a forward flowing serpentine flow cooling circuit having a first leg located adjacent to a trailing edge region of the airfoil and a last leg located adjacent to the leading edge cooling air supply channel; a pressure side tip cooling channel connected to the last leg of the serpentine flow cooling channel and extending to the trailing edge of the airfoil; and, a row of pressure side tip cooling holes connected to the pressure side tip cooling channel.