Kite Networks for HarvestingWind Energy

Read, Roderick

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-1947-0_21

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Other concepts with higher levels of system integration have been proposed, such as rotarytorsion-based, multiwing, multilayer AWE systems (Beaupoil 2019;Read 2018;Tulloch et al 2019) or branched tethers and large multitether kite networks (Santos 2021). Multikite system integration via a carousel-type system has also been proposed (Ippolito 2021).…”

Section: Upscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airborne Wind Energy

Weber

Marquis

Cooperman

et al. 2021

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This section briefly describes the way in which this report addresses the congressional request regarding focus and scope, the consideration of AWE in relation to traditional wind energy, and the approach taken to develop the report. Addressing the Congressional Request: Focus and ScopeThis report describes technical analyses of various aspects of AWE provided to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office to underpin DOE's response to the congressional request for a report on AWE in the Energy Act of 2020, which states:-Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on the potential for, and technical viability of, airborne wind energy systems to provide a significant source of energy in the United States.

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Section: Upscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airborne Wind Energy

Weber

Marquis

Cooperman

et al. 2021

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“…Within the field of AWES, there are a wide variety of different concepts, the most common being kites harvesting power through a pumping cycle [1]. This article investigates the less common fixed ground station Rotary Airborne Wind Energy Systems (RAWES) with Tensile Rotary Power Transmission (TRPT) where the lift is provided by the rotors autogyro effect and optionally a lifter kite [4,5] (Figure 1). A lifter kite (marked black) provides uplift and tension to help maintain a steady operating height and tether tension.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New model for structural optimisation of airborne wind energy systems with rotary transmission

Wacker,

McWilliam,

Muskulus

et al. 2023

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Rotary Airborne Wind Energy Systems (RAWES) are networks of wings that act as flying wind turbines. The power extracted from the wind can be transmitted to ground-based generators through open tensegrity structures. In recent years, there have been different approaches to the topology of the Tensile Rotary Power Transmission (TRPT) and prototype designs are often driven by trial-and-error. This paper proposes a steady-state model with numerical optimisation to accelerate the development and prototyping of AWES by supporting the evaluation of new design concepts. The coupled steady state model uses aerodynamics and structural dynamics to analyse the AWES performance. A novelty is, that the model includes both cross-wind pressure drag and axial friction drag acting on the tethers and frames in the tensegrity structure. Validation of the model has been achieved using data from field measurements of two prototypes. In conclusion, using the proposed optimisation, RAWES with TRPT can be designed to maximise power density, coefficients of performance or power harvesting factor. While RAWES will not be able to outperform conventional wind turbines, they have the potential advantages in niche applications due to reduced costs and simplified logistics resulting from reduced material usage.

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“…Although there exist many other interesting AWE concepts, e.g. those 31 based on tethered rotorcrafts [2,3], we will limit the scope of this paper to rigid-wing lift-32 Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions, and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content.…”

Section: Introduction 22mentioning

confidence: 99%

AWEbox: an Optimal Control Framework for Single- and Multi-Aircraft Airborne Wind Energy Systems

Schutter¹,

Leuthold²,

Bronnenmeyer³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In this paper we present AWEbox, a Python toolbox for modeling and optimal control of multi-aircraft systems for airborne wind energy (AWE). AWEbox provides an implementation of optimization-friendly multi-aircraft AWE dynamics for a wide range of system architectures and modeling options. It automatically formulates typical AWE optimal control problems based on these models, and finds a numerical solution in a reliable and efficient fashion. To obtain a high level of reliability and efficiency, the toolbox implements different homotopy methods for initial guess refinement. The first type of methods produces a feasible initial guess from an analytic initial guess based on user-provided parameters. The second type implements a warmstart procedure for parametric sweeps. We investigate the software performance in two different case studies. In the first case study we solve a single-aircraft reference problem for a large number of different initial guesses. The homotopy methods reduce the expected computation time by a factor of 1.7 and and the peak computation time by a factor of 8, compared to when no homotopy is applied. Overall, the CPU timings are competitive to timings reported in the literature. When the user initialization draws on expert a priori knowledge, homotopies do not increase expected performance, but the peak CPU time is still reduced by a factor of 5.5. In the second case study, a power curve for a dual-aircraft lift-mode AWE system is computed using the two different homotopy types for initial guess refinement. On average, the second homotopy type, which is tailored for parametric sweeps, outperforms the first type in terms of CPU time by a factor of 3. In conclusion, AWEbox provides an open-source implementation of efficient and reliable optimal control methods that both control experts and non-expert AWE developers can benefit from.

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Kite Networks for HarvestingWind Energy

Cited by 12 publications

References 10 publications

Airborne Wind Energy

Airborne Wind Energy

New model for structural optimisation of airborne wind energy systems with rotary transmission

AWEbox: an Optimal Control Framework for Single- and Multi-Aircraft Airborne Wind Energy Systems

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