Combustor bulkhead heat shield assembly

Claim 1

In a gas turbine engine having an annular combustion chamber defined by an annular, inner liner, a concentric outer liner, and an upstream annular combustor head, wherein the head includes a radially extending bulkhead having a plurality of circumferentially distributed openings for each receiving an individual fuel nozzle therethrough, the improvement comprising: a segmented heat shield assembly, disposed between the combustion chamber interior and the bulkhead, including a plurality of generally planar, sector shaped heat shields, each shield abutting circumferentially with two next adjacent shields and extending radially from proximate the inner liner to proximate the outer liner, the plurality of shields collectively defining an annular protective barrier, and wherein each sector shaped shield further includes an opening, corresponding to one of the bulkhead nozzle openings for likewise receiving the corresponding nozzle therethrough, the shield opening further including an annular lip extending toward the bulkhead and being received within the bulkhead opening, a plurality of raised ridges on the shield backside, the ridges contacting the facing bulkhead surface and defining a flow path for a flow of cooling air issuing from a sized supply opening disposed in the bulkhead, said flow path running ultimately from adjacent the annular lip to the edges of each shield segment, wherein the raised edges extend fully along the lateral, circumferentially spaced edges of each shield segment and abut the adjacent shield segments, thereby directing the flow of cooling gas to the radially inward and radially outward edges of the individual shield segments, and wherein the raised ridges further extend circumferentially between the annular lip and the abutting edge ridges for apportioning the flow of cooling gas between the radially inner portion of the shield and the radially outer portion of the shield.