Patent ID: 7722317

Claim:
A CMC-to-metal attachment mechanism, comprising: a first CMC wall on a CMC component; a first metal wall on a metal component; a first plurality of bolts attaching the first CMC wall to the first metal wall; and a nut on each of the first plurality of bolts that clamp the first CMC wall against the first metal wall with a retaining force in a range between a lower limit that is a minimum force that prevents sliding of the first CMC wall against the first metal wall due to dynamic stresses in the CMC and metal components, and an upper limit that is the lesser of 1) a minimum force that prevents sliding of the first CMC wall against the first metal wall due to differential thermal expansion of the first CMC wall versus the first metal wall and 2) a minimum force that exceeds a stress limit in the CMC wall, the range being non-inclusive of the upper and lower limits; whereby a differential thermal expansion or contraction of the first CMC wall in relation to the first metal wall causes a controllably retained sliding movement of the first CMC wall against the first metal wall without binding, but dynamic stresses in the metal and CMC components do not cause sliding movement of the first CMC wall against the first metal wall.