Conformable Inflatable Wings Woven Using a Jacquard Technique

Joep Breuer, Rolf Luchsinger and Roland Schmehl ()
Additional contact information
Joep Breuer: Empa, Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Rolf Luchsinger: Empa, Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Roland Schmehl: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Inflatable wings are of interest for applications where low weight, compact transport volume, and easy set-up are important. Examples are unmanned aerial vehicles with inflatable wings, paragliders and softkites for sport or airborne wind-energy applications. In this paper, a new method of designing and fabricating conformable inflatable wings by Jacquard three-dimensional weaving is presented. Depending on the weaving pattern, plane-parallel, tapered, or even curved structures can be produced. An analytical framework was developed to determine the shapes of pressurized structures produced by Jacquard weaving. Based on this theory, several design patterns suitable for inflatable wings are proposed. It is shown that the structural efficiency of the woven structure is identical to the structural efficiency of a cylinder. To validate the concept, different wing prototypes were built with the methods used for the mass production of airbags. The new method allows for the cost-efficient fabrication of inflatable structures, pressure vessels, and liquid containers with applications in the automotive, aerospace, and leisure industries.

Keywords: one-piece woven; Jacquard weaving; pressure vessels; inflatable structures; inflatable wings; airborne wind energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/2952/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/2952/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:7:p:2952-:d:1105663

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().