A Hydraulic turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.

Hydraulic turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation. They harness a clean and renewable energy source. Flowing water is directed on to the blades of a turbine runner, creating a force on the blades. Since the runner is spinning, the force acts through a distance, In this way, energy is transferred from the water flow to the turbine Turbine selection is based mostly on the available water head, and less so on the available flow rate. In general, impulse turbines are used for high head sites, and reaction turbines are used for low head sites. Kaplan turbines with adjustable blade pitch are well-adapted to wide ranges of flow or head conditions, since their peak efficiency can be achieved over a wide range of flow conditions.

Small turbines (mostly under 10 MW) may have horizontal shafts, and even fairly large bulbtype turbines up to 100 MW or so may be horizontal. Very large Francis and Kaplan machines usually have vertical shafts because this makes best use of the available head, and makes installation of a generator more economical. Pelton wheels may be either vertical or horizontal shaft machines because the size of the machine is so much less than the available head. Some impulse turbines use multiple water jets per runner to increase specific speed and balance shaft thrust.

Typical range of heads Hydraulic wheel turbine Archimedes' screw turbine Kaplan Francis Pelton Turgo 0.2 < H < 4 (H = head in m) 1 < H < 10 2 < H < 40 10 < H < 350 50 < H < 1300 50 < H < 250

The high speed water jets from the nozzles strike the buckets at splitters, placed at the middle of a bucket, from where jets are divided into two equal streams. These stream, flow along the inner curve of the bucket and leave it in the direction opposite to that of incoming jet. The high speed water jets running the Pelton Wheel Turbine are obtained by expanding the high pressure water through nozzles to the atmospheric pressure. The high pressure water can be obtained from any water body situated at some height or streams of water flowing down the hills. The change in momentum (direction as well as speed) of water stream produces an impulse on the blades of the wheel of Pelton Turbine. This impulse generates the torque and rotation in the shaft of Pelton Turbine. To obtain the optimum output from the Pelton Turbine the impulse received by the blades should be maximum. For that, change in

momentum of the water stream should be maximum possible. That is obtained when the water stream is deflected in the direction opposite to which it strikes the buckets and with the same speed relative to the buckets.