Patent ID: 8827632

Claim:
A turbine vane for improving efficiency of a gas turbine engine, said turbine vane comprising: a vane body, said body comprising a machined casting including an airfoil section with one or more internal cooling air passages, where the machined casting has a design which is not to be changed; an impingement plate fitted to an outer end of the vane body, where the impingement plate meters a flow of cooling air onto the outer end of the vane body; a thermal barrier coating (TBC) covering an exterior surface of the airfoil section, where the TBC has a thickness which is increased compared to a nominal vane design in order to achieve a temperature reduction in the turbine vane; and a flow metering plate placed over an inlet to a trailing edge cooling air passage which takes a three-pass serpentine route through the turbine vane, where the flow metering plate reduces a cooling air flow rate by an amount sufficient to offset the temperature reduction achieved by increasing the thickness of the TBC.