Optimum area of solar array for stratospheric solar-powered airship

An optimization model of the optimum area of solar array for a stratospheric solar-powered airship is developed. The objective of the optimization is to reduce the mass of the solar array on an airship by keeping the equilibrium between output power and weight of solar array as a constraint. Based on several parameters of the typical existing airships, the optimization works are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the optimization model. Furthermore, the effects of the wind velocity, airship’s latitude and working date on the optimum area are analyzed in detail. The results of this study demonstrate that the optimization model is a good tool for the preliminary design of solar array on an airship. It can also be found that these influence factors have significant influences on the optimum area, and these factors should be considered together to obtain an optimum and balanced design due to the strong dependence on each other.