TECHNICAL FIELD

The embodiments described herein are generally directed to turbomachinery, and, more particularly, to a stator-side flow discourager that redirects hot gas ingress within a disk cavity between a stator assembly and rotor assembly.

BACKGROUND

In the turbine of a gas turbine engine, adjacent stator and rotor assemblies cannot abut each other, since the rotor assembly must be free to rotate. Thus, disk cavities exist between the stator and rotor assemblies. Hot gas flowing through the turbine enters these disk cavities due to the uneven pressure field generated by the interaction between stator and rotor blades. This ingress of hot gas into the disk cavities is detrimental to the durability of the turbine.

Flow discouragers can be employed to reduce the level of hot gas ingress and lower metal temperatures within the disk cavities. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,004 discloses a contoured shroud that is mounted to a stator assembly and has a free edge that closely underlies the upstream edge of a blade platform of the rotor assembly. The contoured shroud defines a recirculation pocket to prevent hot gas ingestion from the outer hot gas flow path into an internal cooled cavity.

The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming one or more problems, in the state of the art, discovered by the inventors.

SUMMARY

A flow discourager for a turbine is disclosed. In an embodiment, the flow discourager comprises: a body configured to mate with a stator assembly at a position that is radially inward from a stator platform of the stator assembly; and a hook portion that extends downstream from the body and hooks back towards the body, wherein the hook portion comprises a continuous external surface that defines a recirculation zone radially inward from the stator platform when the body is mated with the stator assembly.

