Hiroki T. Endo PhD Researcher Kyushu University Interdisciplinary Graduate School of
Engineering Science 6-1 Kasugakoen, Kasuga Fukuoka, 816-8580 Japan the-eighth-platoon@hotmail.co.jp www.tj.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en
Experimental Setup to Study Airborne Wind Energy Generation
Using a Train of Kites
Hiroki T. Endo1−4, Kazuo Arakawa2, Gonzalo Sánchez-Arriaga3, Hironori A.Fujii4, Hiroshi Okubo5, Yasutake Takahashi6
1Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Science, Kyushu University 2Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University
3Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 4TMIT - Tokyo Metropolitan University
5Department of Mechanical Engineering Kanagawa Institute of Technology
6Department of Human and Artificial Intelligent Systems, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Fukui
We present an experimental study of airborne wind en-ergy generation with a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) lifted by a kite train to higher altitude. The Darrieus type turbine has a diameter of 0.6 m, width of 0.6 m, mass of 2 kg and is made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) hybrid material. The rotor is mechanically connected to a generator on the ground. Important state variables of the system such as altitude, wind velocity and tether state -are monitored by a module attached to one of the kites of the train.
The full experimental setup has been implemented in a low-cost manner. Internet of Things devices, home-made frameworks, and adapters manufactured with a 3D printer have been used in the experiment. The first exper-imental campaign provided valuable scientific and tech-nical information. We successfully collected study data including generated electrical power, wind speed, angle of attack of the kites, altitude and static pressure. The pressure gauge requires calibration before each test and we plan to measure the tether tension.
The next goal is to improve the durability of the test setup and to increase the measurement data volume. Future goals are scaling up of the experiment and implementing automatic take-off and landing (ATOL) by lifting drones.
1
1. Generator monitoring module 2. Flight condition monitoring module 3. Kites
4. Coreless generator
5. CFRP vertical Darrieus wind turbine 2
3
3
4 5
Experimental wind energy conversion with lifted wind turbine.
References:
[1] Hiroki Endo: "Experimental Study of Tether-Sprocket Type Air-borne Wind Power". The 2016 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Aerospace Technology, SBM000366 (2016)
[2] Hiroki Endo, Takashi Umeno: "Study on the Influence of Tem-perature of Extruder Head on the Strength of the FDM 3D Print-ing Model". Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics 29(4), Rb29-4-8371(2017).
