Kite propulsion has emerged as an attractive means to harness wind power in a way that yields environmental and financial benefits. An understanding of the dynamics that affect kite motion and the resulting forces is required to facilitate the design and optimization of kite propulsion systems. In this thesis results from two line tension models are compared with experimentally recorded time histories for dynamic kite flight. New methodologies for investigating kite performance are established. The first zero mass model assumes that the kite and lines are weightless. The second, lumped mass model, considers the kites mass and thus makes use of the equations of motion. It is found that the two different models converge to the same result in the limit where the kite mass tends to zero. The zero mass model has been shown to compare favourably with experimental results. A method for parameterising figure of eight shape kite trajectories and for predicting kite velocity is presented. Results are shown for a variety of manoeuvre shapes, assuming realistic performance characteristics from an experimental test kite. Using a 320m2 kite, with 300m long flying lines in 6.18ms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:570510 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Dadd, George M. |
| Contributors | Hudson, Dominic |
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/351348/ |
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