Method and apparatus for reducing turbine blade tip region temperatures

摘要

A method for fabricating a rotor blade (40) for a gas turbine engine facilitates reducing operating temperatures of a tip portion (110) of the rotor blade. The method comprises forming an airfoil (42) including a first sidewall (46) and a second sidewall (44) connected at a leading edge (48) and a trailing edge (50) to define a cavity therein, wherein the first and second sidewalls extend radially between a rotor blade root and a rotor blade tip plate (54), and forming a first tip wall (74) extending from the rotor blade tip plate along the first sidewall, such that at least a portion of the first tip wall is at least partially recessed with respect to the rotor blade first sidewall to define a tip shelf (90) that extends from the airfoil trailing edge towards the airfoil leading edge. A second tip wall (72) is formed to extend from the rotor blade tip plate along the second sidewall.