Title: High altitude wind energy generation for stratospheric telecommunication balloons in real field

Authors: Öznur Kayhan

Addresses: Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Gebze Technical University, Gebze, 41400, Turkey

Abstract: Solving the energy problem of high altitude unmanned air vehicles is crucial to keep them at target altitude for years. One of the potential power sources is wind power, which is powerful and permanent in the stratosphere. This study outlines the simplified wind energy model integrated into station, keeping the stratospheric balloon to predict the wind power generation in the real field. The sample simulation of the system was run in one of the Turkey's city coordinates and real atmospheric conditions with the inclusion of wind profile. To keep the balloon at the flight station coordinates, propulsion has been applied and energy demand of the propulsion unit has been compared with the wind energy conversion unit output data. Simulation results show that wind energy can compensate energy demand of propulsion unit between 92%-100% in ascending phase depending on the wind turbine swept area. It can be reported that wind energy unit would be helpful to solve the energy problem of stratospheric balloons.

Keywords: stratospheric balloon; high altitude; wind power; energy generation; real environment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSA.2022.126591

International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, 2022 Vol.8 No.4, pp.353 - 368

Received: 03 Jan 2022
Accepted: 24 Apr 2022
Published online: 28 Oct 2022 *

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