Abstract
Airborne wind energy is an emerging technology that harvests wind energy with flight systems connected via a tether to the ground. In the project “EnerGlider”, a flying wing is meant to fly fully automated by its own control units. This contribution discusses the challenges to control and trim this flying wing during vertical take-off and landing under the influence of a horizontal wind velocity. High wind velocities can lead to unstable and untrimmed states concerning the longitudinal motion of the flying wing. The paper analyzes the influence of design modifications of thrust vector and elevon area to enhance the flight envelope of the trimmed states to higher wind velocities. Besides, the tether force as additional control unit is considered for strong wind forces. It is demonstrated that a tether force acting behind the center of gravity can significantly enhance the robustness of the flight system concerning wind velocity. Moreover, the unstable flight states emerging during vertical take-off and landing can be stabilized with a flight control.
Highlights
Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is an emerging technology aiming at harvesting wind energy with flight systems tethered to the ground
As the flying wing has no horizontal tailplane for longitudinal stability, the elevons are the only control unit to counteract the pitching moment induced by the aerodynamic inflow
The model of the flight system is analyzed with respect to its trim states and its stability of the longitudinal motion
Summary
Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is an emerging technology aiming at harvesting wind energy with flight systems tethered to the ground. The airborne vehicle is transmitted mechanically via the tether to the ground, where an unwinding of the tether from a winch drives a generator and generates electrical energy Such a configuration makes use of the high aerodynamic performance during flight, while enabling vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). As the flying wing has no horizontal tailplane for longitudinal stability, the elevons are the only control unit to counteract the pitching moment induced by the aerodynamic inflow. This is especially challenging for operations with high wind velocities, for which aircraft of AWE-systems have to be designed for. As the flight system is longitudinally unstable during vertical take-off, a simplified closed-loop control concept of the flight system is presented for stabilization
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