Stability analysis of a tethered airfoil

The stability analysis of a tethered airfoil system is presented and conditions required for the existence of stable equilibrium points are derived. Two cases are investigated: a case where the tether is assumed to be straight; and a second, more general case, where the tether is assumed to take a catenary geometry. For each case, the relevant equations of motion are derived and simulation results are used to validate the mathematical models. Specifically, for the straight tether case, the analytical conditions for stability are derived and simulated. For the catenary case, simulations were performed to investigate how the equilibrium point moves as operating conditions are varied.