Patent ID: 7147440

Claim:
A method for assembling a rotor assembly for gas turbine engine, said method comprising: providing a first rotor blade that includes an airfoil having a leading edge and a trailing edge including a plurality of trailing edge openings, a platform, a shank, an internal cavity, and a dovetail, wherein the platform extends between the airfoil and the dovetail and includes a radially outer surface, a radially inner surface, and a recessed area extending at least partially between the radially outer and inner surfaces, wherein the internal cavity is defined at least partially by the shank and wherein each shank includes a pair of opposing sidewalls that extend between an upstream sidewall and a downstream sidewall; coupling the first rotor blade to a rotor shaft using the dovetail such that at least a portion of the first rotor blade platform radially inner surface can be impingement cooled by cooling air channeled from the blade cavity; and coupling a second rotor blade to the rotor shaft to facilitate increasing fatigue life of the airfoil trailing edge and such that cooling air can be substantially continuously channeled through the platform recessed area during engine operation to facilitate reducing stresses induced to at least a portion of the airfoil trailing edge, and such that a shank cavity is defined between the first and second rotor blade shanks, and such that a platform gap is defined between the first and second rotor blade platforms.