Two Dimensional Modeling and Simulation of a Tethered Airfoil System for Harnessing Wind Energy Available to Purchase

A novel wind machine is described in which an airfoil-like kite is tethered to a moving base; the non-conservative nature of the wind loads over a cycle of the kite allows energy to be extracted at the base. A dynamic model for the kite-tether system is derived which models the tether as a series of point masses connected by massless rods. The lift and drag characteristics of the kite are determined from airfoil calculations. The system has been found to be stable via simulation at several wind speeds of interest. A sample base motion which extracts energy from the oncoming wind is also presented.