Patent ID: 8684684

Claim:
A turbine apparatus, comprising: a first nozzle comprising an array of first vanes disposed between an annular inner band and an annular outer band, each of the first vanes including: a root, a tip, a concave pressure side and a laterally opposite convex suction side extending in chord between opposite leading and trailing edges, the first vanes arranged so as to define a plurality of first flow passages therebetween bounded in part by the inner band, wherein a surface of the inner band is contoured in a non-axisymmetric shape; a rotor disposed downstream from the first nozzle and comprising a plurality of blades carried by a rotatable disk, each blade including an airfoil having a root, a tip, a concave pressure side, and a laterally opposite convex suction side, the pressure side and the suction side extending in chord between opposite leading and trailing edges; and a second nozzle disposed downstream from the rotor comprising an array of second vanes disposed between an annular inner band and an annular outer band, each of the second vanes including a concave pressure side and a laterally opposite convex suction side extending in chord between opposite leading and trailing edges, the second vanes arranged so as to define a plurality of second flow passages therebetween; wherein the first vanes of the first nozzle and the second vanes of the second nozzle are circumferentially clocked relative to each other such that, in a predetermined operating condition, wakes discharged from the first vanes are aligned in a circumferential direction with the leading edges of the second vanes, wherein a stacking axis of the first vanes is nonlinear such that a plurality of cross-sectional stations spaced-apart along the stacking axis are progressively shifted in a tangential direction to a greater degree from the root of the first vanes to the tip of the first vanes.