Moving control surfaces in a geometry-resolved CFD model of an airborne wind energy system

Abstract

Properly understanding the unsteady interaction of the wind with the aircraft is critical to develop reliable airborne wind energy (AWE) systems. High-fidelity simulation tools are needed to accurately predict these interactions, providing insights into the design and operation of efficient and safe AWE systems. In this work, we present a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework of an airborne wind system which resolves all lifting surfaces and includes moving control surfaces. This work considers a reference multi-megawatt ground-gen pumping system. To simulate complex fluid flow problems, with large rigid-body motion and deflecting control surfaces using CFD, we opt for the Chimera/overset technique. The goal of this contribution is to demonstrate the effect of the control surfaces in the CFD framework. This work is a major milestone in the ongoing development of high-fidelity aero-servo-elastic simulation models for airborne wind energy systems.