Patent ID: 8297919

Claim:
In a turbine engine that includes at least three successive axially stacked rows of airfoils in one of a compressor and a turbine: a first airfoil row, a second airfoil row, and a third airfoil row; wherein the first airfoil row and the third airfoil row both comprise one of a row of rotor blades and a row of stator blades, and the second airfoil row comprises the other; the method of establishing the circumferential position of the airfoils of the third airfoil row with respect to the circumferential position blades of the first row of blades, comprising: selecting an operating condition; determining at the operating condition the path of the wake flow from the trailing edge of the airfoils in the first airfoil row; determining at the operating condition the path of the wake flow as the wake flow passes through the second airfoil row; determining at the operating condition the path of the wake flow from the second airfoil row to the location where the wake flow enters the third airfoil row; and locating at least a majority of the mid-channel points of the airfoils in the third airfoil row within +/−25% pitch of the third airfoil row with respect to the location at which the wake flow is determined to enter the third airfoil row; wherein: the first airfoil row comprises a row of rotor blades in a fourteenth stage of the compressor; the second airfoil row comprises a row of stator blades in the fourteenth stage of the compressor; the third airfoil row comprises a row of rotor blades in a fifteenth stage of the compressor; the row of rotor blades in the fourteenth stage comprises 64 rotor blades, and the row of rotor blades in the fifteenth stage comprises 64 rotor blades; and the row of stator blades in the fourteenth stage comprises 132 stator blades.