Wind Energy Science
Wind Energy Science
WES
Articles | Volume 11, issue 5
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

Related authors

Impact of wind profiles on ground-generation airborne wind energy system performance
Markus Sommerfeld, Martin Dörenkämper, Jochem De Schutter, and Curran Crawford
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1153–1178, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1153-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1153-2023, 2023
Short summary
Scaling effects of fixed-wing ground-generation airborne wind energy systems
Markus Sommerfeld, Martin Dörenkämper, Jochem De Schutter, and Curran Crawford
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1847–1868, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1847-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1847-2022, 2022
Short summary
Large-eddy simulation of airborne wind energy farms
Thomas Haas, Jochem De Schutter, Moritz Diehl, and Johan Meyers
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1093–1135, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1093-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1093-2022, 2022
Short summary

Cited articles

Akberali, A., Kheiri, M., and Bourgault, F.: Generalized aerodynamic models for crosswind kite power systems, J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerod., 215, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2021.104664, 2021. a
Andersson, J. A. E., Gillis, J., Horn, G., Rawlings, J. B., and Diehl, M.: CasADi – A software framework for nonlinear optimization and optimal control, Mathematical Programming Computation, 11, 1–36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12532-018-0139-4, 2019. a
Branlard, E.: Wind Turbine Aerodynamics and Vorticity-Based Methods, Springer-Cham, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55164-7, 2017. a
Crismer, J.-B., Haas, T., Duponcheel, M., and Winckelmans, G.: Large eddy simulation of airborne wind energy systems flying in turbulent wind using model predictive control, Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-288, in review, 2026. a
De Lellis, M., Reginatto, R., Saraiva, R., and Trofino, A.: The Betz limit applied to Airborne Wind Energy, Renewable Energy, 127, 32–40, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.04.034, 2018. a
More articles (41)
Download
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.
Read more
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint