Numerical Models for the Static Analysis of Cable Structures Used in Airborne Wind Turbines

BRUNO A. ROCCIA; ALEJANDRO COSIMO; SERGIO PREIDIKMAN; OLIVIER BRULS

Multibody Mechatronic Systems

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Lugar: Suiza; Año: 2021; p. 140 - 147

In this work, the authors present two different multibody models for static analysis of airborne wind turbines (AWTs) cables. These wind turbines are composed of three main components: a buoyantblimp with a sta ndard turbine rotor fixed within its shell, tethers connecting the system to earth ground, and a rotating base station. The tethers (or cables) are critical parts due to their multiple functions (aerostat control and power electric transmission, among others). The models/procedure presented in this article allows determining equilibrium points of the space tethers, which can be used for starting a global dynamic analysis of the complete system. An accurate initializing solution is essential for the convergence of the successive numeric non-linear aeroelastic analysis of AWTs. On these bases, the authors present two models of increasing complexity: i) a lumped-parameter model formulated in R3, and ii) a finite element model based on a kinematically exact formulation of beams in SE(3). Both models are validated comparing results against well-documented problems (e.g. the elastic catenary).