High tensile stress on fabrics of giant kites : " Beyond the sea " project
Résumé
The challenges and scientific issues for large scale kites were discussed by Guilhem Bles of ENSTA Bretagne. In the Beyond the Sea project, led by the great offshore yachtsman Yves Parlier, the huge spinnaker or kite captures the pull of the wind. Bles described the increase of the stress in the synthetic fiber, when increasing the size of the kite. He went on to explore the tensile force on fabrics and suggest Kevlar amongst current solutions available to help solve issues presented in this technology. He interestingly posed the challenge of new geometric discoveries, of new fabrics with higher tensile strength, and also the challenge of designing the kite by taking into account the visco-elasto-plastic behaviour of the fabrics beyond the elastic limit, as potential future solutions.