Immersed boundary methods and their applicability in wind energy

Abstract

Airborne wind energy systems often use kites made of thin membranes to save material costs and increase mobility. However, this design choice increases the complexity of the aeroelastic behaviour of the system and demands high-fidelity tools. On the aerodynamic side of the multi-physics problem, it is quite challenging to create a high quality body conforming grid due to the complexity of the geometry and the degree of deformation it undergoes. Immersed boundary methods (IBMs) are quite popular in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems that involve arbitrarily deforming bodies with complex geometries and are more tolerant to deformations compared to mesh deforming methods like ALE. This paper will look at some of the popular IBMs, outline criteria to evaluate their applicability, and discuss the limitations they have in fulfilling those in problems involving thin membranes.