Optimal control of crosswind kite systems with an engineering wake model based on vortex loops and dipoles

De Schutter, Jochem; Mühleck, Antonia; Leuthold, Rachel; Diehl, Moritz

doi:10.5194/wes-11-1751-2026

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-1751-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-1751-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

Research article

|

19 May 2026

Research article |

| 19 May 2026

Optimal control of crosswind kite systems with an engineering wake model based on vortex loops and dipoles

Jochem De Schutter, Antonia Mühleck, Rachel Leuthold, and Moritz Diehl

Model code and software

awebox/awebox: Code release for "Optimal Control of Crosswind Kite Systems with an Engineering Wake Model based on Vortex Loops and Dipoles" (Wind Energy Science, 2026) (v1.0.0-wes-2026) J. De Schutter et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20208710

Toni2412/AWEWA: Code release for Section 4 "Optimal Control of Crosswind Kite Systems with an Engineering Wake Model based on Vortex Loops and Dipoles" (Wind Energy Science, 2026) (v1.0.0) A. Mühleck and J. De Schutter https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20238024

Short summary

The performance of high-performance crosswind kite systems is strongly affected by the complex wake structures they generate. We develop an unsteady, vortex-based wake model that can be efficiently integrated into optimal control frameworks for flight trajectory optimization. The model is shown to provide good agreement with higher-fidelity simulations while incurring only moderate additional computational cost, enabling more reliable performance prediction.