Steady-State Solver for a Ram-Air Kite Aeroelastic Model Based on Dynamic Relaxation

We present a computationally efficient steady-state solution method to model the aeroelastic deformation of a ram-air kite for airborne wind energy applications. The kite’s weight in comparison to the aerodynamic forces is small which justifies a quasi-steady analysis, neglecting gravitational and inertial force effects [1]. The approach is...

Fluid-Structure Interaction of Inflatable Wing Sections

We investigate inflatable kites made of membranes such as ram-air [1] and leading edge inflatable [2] kites. The kites are very flexible and therefore exhibit a strong coupling between fluid and structure. An accurate aerodynamic model is essential to design kites which are aerodynamically efficient and of high steering capability