Related papers: Aerodynamics of a rigid curved kite wing
Energy harvesting based on tethered kites benefits from exploiting higher wind speeds at higher altitudes. The setup considered in this paper is based on a pumping cycle. It generates energy by winching out at high tether forces, driving an…
An approach to control tethered wings for airborne wind energy is proposed. A fixed length of the lines is considered, and the aim of the control system is to obtain figure-eight crosswind trajectories. The proposed technique is based on…
This study investigates deep offshore, pumping Airborne Wind Energy systems, focusing on the kite-platform interaction. The considered system includes a 360 m2 soft-wing kite, connected by a tether to a winch installed on a 10-meter-deep…
The unsteady power generation of a wind turbine translating in the streamwise direction is relevant to floating offshore wind turbines, kite-mounted airborne wind turbines, and other non-traditional wind-energy systems. To study this…
The traction force of a kite can be used to drive a cyclic motion for extracting wind energy from the atmosphere. This paper presents a novel quasi-steady modelling framework for predicting the power generated over a full pumping cycle. The…
Converting the traction power of kites into electricity can be a low cost solution for wind energy. Reliable control of both trajectory and tether reeling is crucial. The present study proposes a modelling framework describing the dynamic…
Airborne wind energy systems aim to generate renewable energy by means of the aerodynamic lift produced by a wing tethered to the ground and controlled to fly crosswind paths. The problem of maximizing the average power developed by the…
The tendency of a jet to stay attached to a flat or convex surface is called the Coand\u{a} effect and has many potential technical applications. The aim of this thesis is to assess how well Computational Fluid Dynamics can capture it. A…
A control design approach to achieve fully autonomous take-off and flight maneuvers with a tethered aircraft is presented and demonstrated in real-world flight tests with a small-scale prototype. A ground station equipped with a controlled…
Unsteady inviscid flow models of wings and airfoils have been developed to study the aerodynamics of natural and man-made flyers. Vortex methods have been extensively applied to reduce the dimensionality of these aerodynamic models, based…
Pumping airborne wind energy (AWE) systems employ a kite to convert wind energy into electricity, through a cyclic reeling motion of the tether. The problem of computing the optimal reeling speed for the sake of maximizing the average cycle…
The number of studies related to unmanned air vehicles (UAV), micro air vehicles (MAV), wind turbines, birds and insects which operate at low Reynolds (Re) numbers have rapidly increased, recently. In this thesis, unsteady aerodynamics of…
Biological flapping wing fliers operate efficiently and robustly in a wide range of flight conditions and are a great source of inspiration to engineers. The unsteady aerodynamics of flapping-wings are dominated by large-scale vortical…
We report direct numerical simulations of a pair of wings in horizontal tandem configuration, to analyze the effect of their aspect ratio on the flow and the aerodynamic performance of the system. The wings are immersed in a uniform…
Airborne Wind Energy is a lightweight technology that allows power extraction from the wind using airborne devices such as kites and gliders, where the airfoil orientation can be dynamically controlled in order to maximize performance. The…
Airborne wind energy systems are capable of extracting energy from higher wind speeds at higher altitudes. The configuration considered in this paper is based on a tethered kite flown in a pumping orbit. This pumping cycle generates energy…
Inspired by the wake-surfing nature of animals, this study aims to understand the aerodynamic force variation on a wing surfing in an unsteady 2-D wake. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and force…
This article reports on a full replication study in computational fluid dynamics, using an immersed boundary method to obtain the flow around a pitching and rolling elliptical wing. As in the original study, the computational experiments…
Extreme gust encounters by finite wings with disturbance velocity exceeding their cruise speed remain largely unexplored, while particularly relevant to miniature-scale aircraft. This study considers extreme aerodynamic flows around a…
The problem of launching a tethered aircraft to be used for airborne wind energy generation is investigated. Exploiting well-assessed physical principles, an analysis of three different take-off approaches is carried out. The approaches are…