Combined coolant feed and dovetailed bucket retainer ring

Claim 1

In a gas turbine wherein a turbine disk is mounted on a shaft rotatably supported in a casing, said turbine disk extending substantially perpendicular to the axis of said shaft and having turbine buckets mounted on the outer rim thereof, each bucket having a dovetailed root, means located radially inward of said buckets adjacent said turbine disk for introducing liquid coolant within said turbine in a radially outward direction to an annular gutter to enter open-circuit distribution paths by which said coolant reaches and cools each of said buckets, each distribution path comprising a cooling channel/manifold system in one bucket for traversal of a portion of the bucket by the coolant followed by discharge thereof from the bucket, the improvement comprising, at least one one-piece annular member attached to said outer rim solely by means of an overlap in the generally axial direction between an annular portion of said member and an annular portion of said outer rim, the overlap being an interference fit conformed as a reverse angle, said annular member having an annular gutter formed therein, said gutter being in flow communication with the open-circuit coolant distribution paths via circumferentially spaced feed holes in said annular member.