Modeling toolset for airborne wind energy systems

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Airborne wind energy (AWE) is an emerging alternative to conventional wind turbines; instead of a rotor sitting atop a tower, a kite or plane is attached to the end of a tether and flies a pattern in air. There are two variants of AWE, one with the kite/plane pulling the tether in and out with a generator on the ground, and the second variant with a turbine on the kite/plane generating power on-board and transmitting the power to the ground via a conductive tether. This project is working on building design tools for the former concept. These tools are needed as the system dynamics in the presence of unsteady winds are very complicated, and the sizing of the ground station components directly related to understanding well the unsteady loads that will be imparted, as well as maximizing efficiency of the overall operation of the entire system.