Abstract: An impulse turbine, particularly of the reversible type, comprises at least a runner fast on a shaft in order to be rotatable about an axis of rotation. Each runner is provided with at least a hollow working member adapted to receive a fluid fed according to a direction substantially transverse with respect to said axis of rotation, from an inlet portion to a discharge portion of the hollow working member, so that thrust forces are generated whose resultant tends to drive the runner into rotation as a result of the passage of the fluid in the hollow working member. The distance between the straight line of action of the resultant of the thrust forces on each hollow working member and the axis of rotation of the runner is smaller than the distance between the inlet portion of each hollow working member and the axis of rotation of the runner.

Abstract: An impulse turbine comprises at least one runner keyed to a drive shaft in association with a distributor unit which has, for each runner, a circular outlet for the supply of fluid from the distributor unit to the blades of a respective runner. Each outlet is arranged coaxially inside the respective runner and the distributor unit is shaped in a manner such as to define a substantially circular path for the fluid and to cause the fluid to emerge from the distributor unit through the at least one outlet predominantly tangentially relative to the outlet.