Tapered enlargement metering inlet channel for a shroud cooling assembly of gas turbine engines

Claim 1

A shroud cooling assembly for a gas turbine engine comprising, in combination: (a) a plurality of arcuate shroud sections circumferentially arranged to surround the rotor blades of a high pressure section of the gas turbine engine, each said shroud section including: 1) a base having a radially outer back surface, a radially inner front surface forming a portion of a radially outer boundary for the engine main gas stream flowing through the high pressure turbine, an upstream end and a downstream end, 2) a fore rail extending radially outwardly from said base adjacent said upstream end thereof, 3) an aft rail extending radially outwardly from said base adjacent said downstream end thereof, 4) a pair of spaced side rails extending radially outwardly from said base in conjoined relation with said fore and aft rails, and 5) a plurality of convection cooling passages extending through said base with inlets at said base back surface and outlets at said base front surface, (b) a plurality of arcuate hanger sections secured to the outer case of the gas turbine engine for supporting said shroud sections, each said hanger section including at least one metering channel therethrough for providing a controlled flow of substantially uniformly pressurized cooling air from a nozzle plenum, said metering channel including an inlet and an outlet, and said channel receiving flow at a first pressure and discharging flow at a second pressure, each said hanger section defining with said base back surface and said fore, aft and side rails of each said shroud section, a shroud chamber; and (c) a pan-shaped baffle attached to each said hanger section in position within each said shroud chamber to align with said hanger section a baffle plenum in communication with said metering channel to receive substantially uniformly pressurized cooling air directly from said nozzle plenum, said baffle including a plurality of perforations through with streams of cooling air are radially inwardly directed into impingement with one of said shroud sections, whereby to maximize impingement cooling of said shroud sections, the impingement cooling air then flowing through said passages to convection cool said shroud sections and ultimately flowing along said shroud front surface to provide film cooling of said shroud sections; and (d) wherein said metering channel includes a frustroconical recuperator section positioned to provide an increase in the cross-sectional channel area in the direction of flow, wherein said frustroconical recuperator section i) equilibrates the channel flow pressure with the baffle plenum pressure, ii) minimizes turbulence of said channel flow discharging into said baffle plenum, and iii) reduces the possibility of pressure induced fluctuations within said baffle plenum and said shroud chamber.