Makani Kite power calculations

Welcome to the forum @khawajaAdnan,

I will try to reply to your questions, at least partially.

Question 1. No. It is “lift” or “drag” power, not both, not “lift” power + “drag” power.
Note that I put “lift” and “drag” in quotes because their meaning is different or even opposite in the terminology of existing wind turbines: lift devices generally designating HAWT (current three-bladed turbines) with a high power coefficient and being perpendicular to the wind flow, while drag devices generally designating Savonius-type with a low power coefficient and being pushed by the wind.

It is the reason why I prefer use “yoyo” or “pumping mode” or “reeling”, and “flygen” terms in the place of “lift” and “drag” terms.

In flygen configuration (onboard turbine) the kite is slowdown by the turbine, while the swept area remains stationary.
In yoyo (pumping or reeling) mode the reel-out operation assures the power. By Loyd’s formula “lift” power and “drag” power are equivalent per kite area, all other parameters such like lift-to-drag ratio being identical. In the other hand see The Betz limit applied to Airborne Wind Energy.

Questions 2 and 3. It is about induction factor. For the yoyo mode, a is the reel-out speed in respect to the wind speed. For flygen, a is dependent from the dimensions of the secondary turbines. The larger the secondary turbines in relation to the wing area, the lower the induction factor. If a = 0, there is no induction factor: the induction factor increases with a. A typical value of a for both flygen and yoyo modes is 1/3 (respectively drag of the onboard turbine in respect to the drag of the whole device, and reel-out speed in respect to the wind speed as indicated above), although a value of 0.2 for flygen can be seen as better (lower induction factor).

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