Chassis Design of a Control Pod for a Kite Power System

Abstract: This is the report of a master thesis in light weight design of a component in a system that harnesses wind power with a kite. The thesis is a degree project in Naval Architecture at KTH with the course code SD271X. The design work is mostly of a structural nature, but systems engineering, and conceptual design is also a major part of thestudy. The first part introduces the problem where the client, SkySails Power GmbH, is looking to design a new control pod for a system that carries 3 times the load as a previous design. The thesis is limited to the design of the load bearing chassis of the pod, but because at the time the other sub systems or components have not yetbeen designed, the study includes concept design of the entire pod system. The flight pattern and load cases of the kite are studied to get the right understanding of the forces that affect the system. The goal is to design achassis that is as affordable, light weight, and as strong as needed for the task.The requirements of the design problem are decided by the master student and the client together after a prestudy was made but they had minor changes further along the design process. It is a real life, organic iterative design process that has a goal from the start to use the opportunity of an outsider to reconsider the design of akey component of the client’s product.The result is a chassis design that is cheaper to produce and weighs less than if the old chassis would be linearly scaled up with the loads. This design has the same concept as the last but with a couple of modifications concerning some attachments to the rest of the system. The requirement of maintaining all previous functionsis achieved. A significant part of the thesis was to determine the boundaries between the areas of where FEM modelling is applicable and where hand calculations estimations are necessary. The results from this work will be used to build a prototype of the chassis, test it in a tensile testing machine, and finally integrate it into theentire system and flown.