The Impulse Turbine:

The impulse turbine consists of a set of stationary blades followed by a set of

rotor blades which rotate to produce the rotary power. The high pressure steam
flows through the fixed blades, which are nothing but nozzles, and undergo a
decrease in pressure energy, which is converted to kinetic energy to give the
steam high velocity levels. This high velocity steam strikes the moving blades
or rotor and causes them to rotate. The fixed blades do not completely convert
all the pressure energy of the steam to kinetic energy, hence there is some
residual pressure energy associated with the steam on exit. Therefore the
efficiency of this turbine is very limited as compared to the next turbine we are
going to review- the reaction turbine or impulse reaction turbine.

The Reaction Turbine:

The reaction turbine is a turbine that makes use of both the impulse and the
reaction of the steam to produce the rotary effect on the rotors. The moving
blades or the rotors here are also nozzle shaped (They are aerodynamically
designed for this) and hence there is a drop in pressure while moving through
the rotor as well. Therefore in this turbine the pressure drops occur not only in
the fixed blades, but a further pressure drop occurs in the rotor stage as well.
This is the reason why this turbine is more efficient as the exit pressure of the
steam is lesser, and the conversion is more. The velocity drop between the fixed
blades and moving blades is almost zero, and the main velocity drop occurs
only in the rotor stage.