Design Space Exploration of Gyrocopter-Type Airborne Wind Turbines

This paper presents a design space exploration of gyrocopter-type airbone wind turbines through a multidisciplinary analysis and optimization (MDAO) environment, and provides guidelines for future development of this novel concept. Four rotary wings provide lift to a flying vehicle and excess power is extracted using gearboxes and generators before being transferred to the ground through electrical conductors embedded in a structural tether. A physical breakdown of the system was performed and five models were constructed: wind model, rotor aerodynamics, structural mass, electrical system and tether (structures and aerodynamics). An optimizer was then used to ensure interdisciplinary compatibility and maximize electrical power transmitted to the ground under various operating conditions. The effect of implementing new technologies was also studied in order to evaluate their effect on the overall performance of the system. Finally, it is shown through a 1.3 MW design that a gyrocopter-type airborne generator could provide more power than a ground based wind turbine for a given blade radius, although only a fraction of the available wind power can be harvested using off-the-shelf technologies and components.