INVERSION FOR STABILITY: Currently my most active area of research, I am investigating how the aerodynamic stability of AWE kites can be influenced by both passive wing geometry and active control surfaces. Since airfoil inversion can be controlled independently at a wing’s root and wingtip, this mechanism can provide roll and adverse yaw control to swept wing kites as well as letting them power dive between energy cycles.

ONGOING EXPERIMENTS: These stability considerations directly dictate kite structure: three spars running along the kite’s interior wingspan will double as structural beams and driveshafts to turn the inverting airfoils at different wing sections. In the summer of 2022, I designed and led the construction of a large area wind testing platform for future large (~3m wingspan) inverting kite tests. This fall and spring, I plan to use that testing platform to validate wing structure designs and experiment with inverting control surfaces and algorithms for active roll and adverse yaw stability.

PRESENTATIONS & MEDIA: Aside from departmental and university-level speaking presentations, I have displayed this research with my advisor Professor E. Carr Everbach at a Sigma Xi poster presentation, the Tethered Aerosystems Working Group Summer 2021 Meeting, and soon with Jacob Sherman ’25 at the American Geophysical Union Fall 2022 Meeting. An article on inverting airfoils also appeared in the Swarthmore ITS Blog in April 2022. Note that the poster shown below has an outdated inner support design for inverting airfoils.

• Vandervelde, J., Sherman, J., Everbach, E. C., “Airborne Wind Energy Kites with Inverting Wings: Airfoil Optimization and Stability Testing,” American Geophysical Union Fall 2022 Meeting, December 12 – 16, 2022, Chicago, IL. Abstract accepted. (Virtual)
• Vandervelde, J., Sherman, J., Everbach, E. C., “Creating an Open Wind Tunnel to Test Airborne Wind Energy Kites,” Sigma Xi 2022 Poster Presentation, September 22 – 23, 2022, Swarthmore College.
• Vandervelde, J., Sherman, J., Everbach, E. C., “The Swarthmore College Open Wind Tunnel,” Tethered AeroSystems Working Group Summer 2022 Meeting, July 29, 2022. (Virtual)
• Dougherty, R., Vandervelde, J., Sherman, J., Everbach, E. C., “Wind Wins,” Swarthmore College Bulletin, October 2022. https://magazine.swarthmore.edu/issue/fall-2022/studentwise-wind-wins/
• Werbock, N., Vandervelde, J., Sherman, J., “Engineering at Swarthmore: Airborne Wind Energy,” Swarthmore College YouTube, August 19, 2022. https://youtu.be/tr4zC9rMUvs