Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is an emerging technology in the field of renewable\nenergy that uses kites to harvest wind energy. However, unlike for conventional wind turbines,\nthe wind environment in AWE systems has not yet been studied in much detail. We propose\na simulation framework using Large Eddy Simulation to model the wakes of such kite systems\nand offer a comparison with turbine-like wakes. In order to model the kite effects on the flow,\na lifting line technique is used. We investigate different wake configurations related to the\noperation modes of wind turbines and airborne systems in drag mode. In the turbine mode,\nthe aerodynamic torque of the blades is directly added to the flow. In the kite drag mode, the\naerodynamic torque of the wings is directly balanced by an opposite torque induced by on-board\ngenerators; this results in a total torque on the flow that is zero. We present the main differences\nin wake characteristics, especially flow induction and vorticity fields, for the depicted operation\nmodes both with laminar and turbulent inflows.
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