Search Results (2)

Soft-wing kites for airborne wind-energy harvesting function as flying tensile membrane structures, each of whose shape depends on the aerodynamic load distribution and vice versa. The strong two-way coupling between shape and loading poses a complex fluid-structure interaction problem. Since computational models for such problems do not yet meet the requirements of being accurate and at the same time fast, kite designers usually work on the basis of intuition and experience, combined with extensive iterative flight testing. This paper presents a fast aero-structural model of leading-edge inflatable kites for the design phase of airborne wind-energy systems. The fluid-structure interaction solver couples two fast and modular models: a particle system model to capture the deformation of the wing and bridle-line system and a 3D nonlinear vortex step method coupled with viscous 2D airfoil polars to describe the aerodynamics. The flow solver was validated with several wing geometries and proved to be accurate and computationally inexpensive for pre-stall angles of attack. The coupled aero-structural model was validated using experimental data, showing good agreement in the deformations and aerodynamic forces. Therefore, the speed and accuracy of this model make it an excellent foundation for a kite design tool. Full article

The stall aerodynamic model based on Kirchhoff’s theory of flow separation is widely used in the identification and modeling of stall aerodynamic parameters. However, it has two defects. First, its model structure is significantly different from the pre-stall model used for a small attack angle, meaning the identification results cannot be combined with the pre-stall model to form the full flight envelope model. Second, the pitching moment model, which is used in conjunction with the Kirchhoff lift model, cannot accurately describe the aircraft stall pitching moment characteristics. To ensure the compatibility of the two models, this paper proposes a method to determine some unknown parameters in the stall model. The mechanism for the pitching moment generation of the aircraft stall is analyzed, and two high-order correction terms are added to the pitching moment model to better describe the longitudinal stall aerodynamic characteristics. Based on the identification of aerodynamic parameters, a longitudinal stall aerodynamic modeling method used for the aircraft stall process is developed. The identification and simulation validation results based on the quasi-steady stall flight data of a civil aircraft show that the improved stall model can accurately describe the quasi-steady stall pitching moment. The established stall aerodynamic model can accurately characterize the longitudinal quasi-steady stall aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft under different stall degrees. Full article