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Projecte llegit

Títol: Computational Fluid Dynamics study of a kitesurf

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: VILLARDI DE MONTLAUR, ADELINE DE

Departament: FIS

Títol: Computational Fluid Dynamics study of a kitesurf

Data inici oferta: 06-03-2012     Data finalització oferta: 06-11-2012


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    Tipus: Individual
     
    Lloc de realització: EETAC
     
    Paraules clau:
    CFD, ANSYS, kite
     
    Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
    A leading edge inflatable kite, for application to kitesurfing, will be modeled, and the air flow around it will be studied with the CFD software ANSYS.
    The kite will be considered as a rigid body. Aerodynamics properties of the kite will be computed, namely the lift and drag coefficients. Their variations will be studied as functions of various parameters:
    - the angle of attack between the relative wind and the kite,
    - the angle of the kite (making it more or less curved),
    - the camber of the “airfoil” of the kite.
    The numerical studies will be made for various typical wind values.
     
    Overview (resum en anglès):
    Kitesurf is a sport of surfing while holding on to a specially designed kite, using the wind for propulsion. In the field of investigation or kitesurf industry, the kite aerodynamics is a crucial point. This work tries to explain the basic aerodynamic aspects of a specific kite model in a stationary situation depending on three variables: the angle of attack, the inclination angle and the intensity of wind.

    Using the Ansys software, a computational fluid dynamics analysis of the aerodynamic forces acting on the kite has been done. After, the forces affecting the kiter are studied.

    First, a difference in aerodynamic forces acting upon this kite and a common airfoil has been seen. It has been concluded that the special combination of a movement perpendicular to the wind and the curvature of the leading edge must be the reason of this difference. The variation on the forces depending on the variables is explained. And besides, it is justified why the bow kites can generate more power than C-kites. It is only a matter of which of them has more area oriented upwards.

    After, the effect of the previous results on the kiter has been analized. For this reason, some limits have been taken into account for the different forces. The configuration of angles that cause the best performance is a low angle of attack for almost any of inclination angles. In addition, the studies show that the selected wind speed doesn’t affect the choice of configuration.

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