The Influence of Tether Sag on Airborne Wind Energy Generation

Abstract

The aim of this work is to propose engineering models to include the external forces acting on the tether into the power estimation of an Airborne Wind Energy System flying crosswind. The influence of aerodynamic drag, centrifugal force and gravitational force on power production is investigated. These three types of external loading acting on the tether are lumped with the kite and the tether is considered straight. In this way, a set of equations describing the tether shape and its influence on the power production is reduced to just one power equation. The formulation with straight tether and lumped quantities is suitable for preliminary designs and analyses and points out how the tether influence the system. On top of the results concerning the tether modelling, a new analytical model which includes the centrifugal forces into the power estimation for circular paths is presented.