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Isotropic Kite Demo (Scale "Large-Array" Model)

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.


 

CoolIP                       ~Dave Santos            April 2 , 2011        M3279


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  • 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.
     
  • AWE4856   Turning the Sky into a MSKA Energy Gel (Masao's Intro to Gel Dynamics) 
    and   Gel Dynamics - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
     
    • 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
       
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