PELTON WHEEL TURBINE

The Pelton  wheel is an impulse type water turbine . Many variations of impulse turbines existed prior to Pelton design, but they were less efficient than  design. Water leaving those wheels typically still had high speed, carrying away much of the dynamic energy brought to the wheels. Pelton paddle geometry was designed so that when the rim ran at half the speed of the water jet, the water left the wheel with very little speed thus his design extracted almost all of the water impulse energy which allowed for a very efficient turbine.