Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Terms of Use
© 2023 Joshua Vandervelde. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Engineering Department
First Advisor
E. Carr Everbach
Abstract
Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is an emerging method of extracting clean energy from high altitude airstreams with tethered kites, but inflated kites presently lack actuators to control lift and roll. Inverting wings show promise at providing both forms of maneuverability and have so far been researched to validate lift vector manipulation. This capstone project aims to demonstrate the applicability of inverting wings to roll control by segmenting an inflated wing into sections with independent inversion control, inducing a roll moment. The preliminary results from this novel wing design suggest that double inversion does indeed facilitate roll control, but further roll analysis is required using automated inversion torque motors. All other structural, functional, weight savings, and cost reduction designs in the inverting wing, its wing mount setup, and the force-moment measurement system performed nominally.
Recommended Citation
Vandervelde, Joshua , '23, "Inverting Kite Structure & Stability for Airborne Wind Energy" (2023). Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards. 299.
https://works.swarthmore.edu/theses/299