The traction force of a kite can be used to drive a cyclic motion forextracting wind energy from the atmosphere. This paper presents a novelquasi-steady modelling framework for predicting the power generated over a fullpumping cycle. The cycle is divided into traction, retraction and transitionphases, each described by an individual set of analytic equations. The effectof gravity on the airborne system components is included in the framework. Atrade-off is made between modelling accuracy and computation speed such thatthe model is specifically useful for system optimisation and scaling ineconomic feasibility studies. Simulation results are compared to experimentalmeasurements of a 20 kW kite power system operated up to a tether length of 720m. Simulation and experiment agree reasonably well, both for moderate and forstrong wind conditions, indicating that the effect of gravity has to be takeninto account for a predictive performance simulation.
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