A typical kite flying on its tether is anisotropic; it
must maintain structural direction into the wind dependent on the tether
rotating around its compass & the kite weathervaning. Similarly, a large
kite arch must rotate as a whole to follow wind direction. This sets a
limit to how big an arch or 3D array can be & still rotate in real-time. A
related space utilization limitation is for the anchor point to be fixed
at the center of the "rose" (or in the arch case, abeam of the center),
rather than the anchoring shifting fully windward, allowing higher flight
while still always staying within tight bounds when forced to land. One
cannot merely stake out a kite or array radially without excessive slack
of the downwind lines and suboptimal AoA. Another problem is reliance on a
single tether: When it parts the result is a breakaway event, AWE's
general worst-case scenario.
The latest tabletop demo shows a solution to all these problems. A
Tri-Tether pulley or winch anchor triangle allows an isotropic kite or
kite array to adapt & receive wind from any direction; to passively tune
its AoA & fly from windward anchors, without rotating. While the demo uses
a common paper plate as a "Sedgwick UFO" style kite element, the intent is
to suggest a vast kite array, possibly a fractal Play-Sail or
"Ohashi-Mesh". During the test session in fluky wind the plate
self-launched many times, adapted without fuss to rotating the tabletop,
and flew with decent stability. Envision this concept at an early
full scale of 2000 ft regulatory altitude within a rose approximately 1 km
across, or as an ultimate version 10,000 m high by about 20,000 m across,
even spanning a major city.
A modest Isotropic Array could land its center (or legs) on a tower(s) or hill(s) and
a giant version center on a mountain to keep array elements clear of the
ground. The versatile tri-tether is also suited to tow a kite or array in
circles, for persistence in calm. One can also imagine this adaptive
mechanism as a cellular unit in a larger fixed lattice, compliant
to array-scale turbulence. A hybrid design option is anisotropic kites on
an isotropic lattice using classic kite-train connections like
thru-bridling and tri-swivels.
BZ
Belousov-Zhabotinsky BZ CA
three-dimensional Belousov-Zhabotinsky-scroll cellular
automata (3D BZ CAs for short) BZ-CA, BZ CA,
BZ reaction
wiki [[ Could this be
an analogical model useful in understanding or visualizing vast dense
latticework AWECS? ]]
Kite energy is a hot research engineering field. An emerging idea is
that kites set in a vast aerial latticework of polymer line can be
optimized for
BZ-CA style self-oscillations to tap the vast 1000 terawatt wind
energy resource at high altitude. Such a 3D lattice acts as a true gel
on a giant scale, with air as the pressurizing fluid, a nicely excitable
highly scalable medium to transfer wind momentum to generators on the
ground. It is phononic field-computing processing wind-field chaos into
synchronous grid power. The kite itself is an incredible totally
embodied paleo-cybernetic device. Self-oscillating kite elements called
membrane wingmills have been recently developed that can be ganged into
synchrony. String and membrane are quasi one and two dimensional
realities with minimal mass to maximal power
in 3D space.
ds, April 2011.
Note that 3-D Kite Lattices fulfill all
the basic mechanical conditions of laboratory gels, with a few new
twists. Mega-Scale Kite Aerogels will set many new records for
engineered gels, including greatest variation in volume.
21Nov2011 DS
The biggest area unexplored by Masao is
the vibration modes that will convey wind energy to the surface. Other
researchers are exploring normal-mode vibration of gels, but no one
citation has jumped out. 21Nov2011 DS