Optimization of a Multi-Element Airfoil for a Rigid Airborne Wind Energy Kite

Optimization of a Multi-Element Airfoil for a Rigid Airborne Wind Energy Kite

Porta i Ko, Agustí (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)

Schmehl, R. (mentor)
Smidt, Sture (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Aerospace Engineering

2022-11-17

Airborne wind energy (AWE) systems benefit from a high lift airfoil to increase the power output, to that end, multi-element airfoils are investigated for AWE applications. This thesis aims to optimize a multi-element airfoil for a rigid AWE kite that operates in a pumping cycle. Since the kite has distinct operational phases, i.e., reel-out and reel-in phase, the airfoil design must take into account the different design objectives for each phase. The airfoil is first optimized for reel-out or production phase and it is then adapted for the reel-in or return phase requirements by modifying its flap setting. The optimization is performed through a multi-objective genetic algorithm coupled to MSES as the aerodynamic solver. Once the multi-element airfoil has been optimized, its aerodynamic performance is verified through CFD RANS simulations, computed with OpenFOAM. The resulting airfoil offers a satisfactory performance for production and return phase; and the CFD verification shows a fairly good agreement in terms of lift coefficient although the drag has been significantly overpredicted by MSES.

Airborne wind energy
Multi-element airfoil
Aerodynamic design
Genetic algorithm
Optimization algorithms
CFD
MSES

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:607bab45-4d6c-4308-8f16-84f332fe3f6b

Student theses

master thesis

© 2022 Agustí Porta i Ko