A tethered aerostat model is developed using a computationally efficient recursive tether model. The recursive rigid-body tether model results in unconstrained ordinary differential equations and maintains much of the simplicity of simple lumped-mass tether models, while avoiding numerical difficulties associated with using many stiff elastic elements with low mass. Further efficiency is achieved by treating each tether link as a body of revolution and assuming that tether spin is negligible to the dynamics. The tether is attached to a six-degree-of-freedom aerostat model using a single viscoelastic element. The final recursive tethered aerostat model is well suited for a variety of trade studies required for design and analysis of such systems, due to its low computational cost and numerical robustness. Simulations are used to show how the proposed recursive model can be used to investigate the dynamic response and tether loads for a 17 m tethered aerostat in response to varying winds.
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