Patent ID: 7704048

Claim:
A cooling arrangement for a turbine airfoil having an increasing cross-sectional area along a longitudinal axis from an inner diameter endwall to an outer diameter endwall, the cooling arrangement comprising: a cooling path extending in a generally longitudinal direction along the turbine airfoil, the cooling path comprising a single channel for conducting a fluid flow for cooling both a pressure side and a suction side of the turbine airfoil proximate the inner diameter endwall; and a splitter component disposed within the cooling path and extending from a diverging point toward the outer diameter endwall, the splitter component dividing the cooling path into a pressure-side channel conducting a pressure side portion of the fluid flow for cooling the pressure side and a suction side channel for conducting a suction side portion of the fluid flow for cooling the suction side downstream of the diverging point, and the splitter component is disposed within the cooling path for converging the pressure side channel and the suction side channel into an outer diameter cavity adjacent the outer diameter endwall; wherein the cross-sectional area of the airfoil increases from the inner diameter endwall to the outer diameter endwall by a factor of at least 1.5:1.