Original Article

Proc IMechE Part G:

J Aerospace Engineering
Optimum area of solar array for 0(0) 1–12
! IMechE 2016

stratospheric solar-powered airship Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954410016670420
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Jun Li, Mingyun Lv and Kangwen Sun

Abstract
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.

Keywords
Optimum area, solar array, optimization method, stratospheric solar-powered airship, theoretical model

Date received: 10 May 2016; accepted: 23 August 2016

Introduction
The stratospheric solar-powered airships, as a radio
relay and monitoring station, have attracting interests
in the areas of telecommunications service, earth
observation sciences and others.1–3 For a strato-
spheric airship, the solar array is one of the key tech-
nologies because the vehicle is required to have the
ability to fly for an extended duration of time at
high altitude. During performing different tasks, the
energy consumptions and the required areas of solar
array are different. In addition, the weight of solar
array is proportional to its area. Minimizing the
area signifies the decrease in weight. Therefore, an
optimal scheme of the area of solar array for different
flight strategies is one of the concerns in the primary
design of a stratospheric solar-powered airship.
Many studies have been carried out previously to
survey the feasibility of stratospheric solar-powered
airships. For any type of long endurance vehicle,
Colozza and colleagues4–6 expatiated that technolo-
gies such as thin film solar arrays, fuel cells, electro-
lyzers and power management were the key elements
in the feasibility of achieving long duration high alti-
tude flight. A number of factors such as the oper-
ational environment and efficiencies of the power
system components which can influence the energy
balance of a stratospheric solar-powered airship
were listed by Colozza. In addition, the author ana-
lyzed the feasibility of operating a high altitude long
endurance airship and pointed out any limitations or
restrictions. Eguchi and colleagues7,8 researched the
feasibility of stratospheric platform airship during
18 months from Spring 1998 and found that the
stratospheric airship system might be realized with
advanced component technologies. The key technolo-
gies of feasibility study program included design and
manufacturing of a huge lightweight envelope, a clean
solar power generation system with photovoltaics and
fuel cells and so on. A project9 was worked within 16
months to demonstrate the feasibility of a small ultra-
lightweight solar-powered airship and to show one
possible ecological alternative within some areas of
the air traffic.
As mentioned in the foregoing description, it can
be seen that the stratospheric solar-powered airships
with ability of station-keeping at high altitude is feas-
ible. And the following conclusion can be drawn that
the solar array on the airship can provide enough
energy to drive the vehicle, but the output perform-
ance of solar array is sensitive to a number of factors,
such as flight altitude, flight location, date of task and
so on.10,11
School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang University,
Beijing, PR China
Corresponding author:
Kangwen Sun, School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang
University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, PR China.
Email: sunkw100@buaa.edu.cn

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2 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 0(0)

On this basis, several studies have been carried out lower part of the vehicle. To simplify the model,
about design of the energy system of a stratospheric the stratospheric airship subjected to a payload is
solar-powered airship. Liu et al.12 presented a model idealized to be a streamlined airship.
of paving solar cells on curved surface and a model of 2. The stratospheric airship envelope and solar cell
energy-closed loop during day and night to design a are so thin that their thicknesses are less than
feasible airship which had minimum total mass. The 0.1% of diameter of a stratospheric airship.
particle swarm optimization algorithm was used to Therefore, the diameter of streamlined airship is
optimize the parameters of the airship and the ana- approximated as the overall diameter of strato-
lysis results verified the validity of the conceptual spheric airship.
design method. Based on the comparative analyses
of the experimental data and simulation results, Sun From the above fundamental assumptions, the new
et al.13 analyzed the temperature variation character- theoretical model is possible to induce a greater error
istics of the solar cell. The honeycomb sandwich struc- than some more sophisticated but possibly more
ture was used as thermal insulation layer to control expensive approaches. But this model will still play
the temperature and reduce the covering area of the an important role in researching the optimum area of
solar array mounted on the stratospheric airship. Liu solar array due to its expedient and easy application.
et al.14 presented the methodology of orthogonal
experiment used in the optimization design of the
power system of the stratosphere airship. Results
Geometric model of stratospheric airship
showed that the optimal configuration had an Generally, the stratospheric airship can be regarded as
increase of 115.3% in reliability and 41.23% increase a smooth, streamlined body of revolution. The axi-
in weight. These scholars and specialists focused the symmetrical cross-section curve of airship is described
attention on the design and optimization of the energy with equivalent rotary radius r as the function of the
system. However, it was rare in these studies to dis- coordinate y
cuss optimum area of solar array for a stratospheric
solar-powered airship for different flight strategies. rð yÞ ¼ f ð yÞ 04y4L ð1Þ
Garg et al.15 proposed an approach to minimize the
random variable in the estimation of the solar energy where L is the length of an airship.
required and also to estimate the solar panels area The largest diameter of an airship, D, can be obtained
required in such a way so as to make the airship sustain
in the worst condition of solar intensity incident on the D ¼ maxðrð yÞÞ ð2Þ
airship. However, Garg and Burnwal neglected the
effects of several influence factors, such as the wind The fineness ratio is described as follow
velocity, airship’s latitude, on the solar panels area.
These factors had significant influences on the opti- fr ¼ L=D ð3Þ
mum area due to their effects on the required incident
power and energy produced by per square meter of the The area of airship envelope can be defined as
solar array. Hence, it is very necessary to investigate
Z sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi
the effects of the factors on the optimum area. L
drð yÞ
In this paper, a theoretical model to investigate the Aenv ¼ 2    rð yÞ  1 þ  dy ð4Þ
0 dy
optimum area of solar array on a stratospheric solar-
powered airship is developed. The theoretical model
consists of geometric model of stratospheric airship, The airship’s volume can be defined as
model of power required, solar radiation model,
Z L
energy generation model of solar array and optimiza-
tion model of solar array. Then, a numerical simula- Vairship ¼   r2 ð yÞ  dy ð5Þ
0
tion program is established to research the effects of
wind velocity, airship’s latitude and working date on The y location of centre of the envelope gravity is
the optimum area. The obtained result is a valuable depicted as16
reference for the preliminary design of solar array. ZL sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi ,
drð yÞ
ycg ¼ 2    y  rð yÞ  1 þ  dy Aenv
dy
Theoretical model 0

ð6Þ
To analyze the optimum area of solar array on strato-
spheric airship, fundamental assumptions made in
this paper are as follows:
Model of power required
1. Actual stratospheric airship cannot maintain its The total power required to run an airship and its
streamlined shape as a result of the load in the payloads mostly consists of control system (pcontrol ),

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Li et al. 3

payload system (ppayload ) and propulsion system can be expressed as

(ppropulsion ), which can be given by
 
1 þ ee  cosðle Þ 2
Itop ¼ I0 
ptotal ¼ pcontrol þ ppayload þ ppropulsion ð7Þ 1  e2e
  ð12Þ
le ¼ day þ 0:0334  sin day
 
The propulsion system uses by far the greatest þ 3:49  104  sin 2  day
amount of energy and the propulsion power required
is different when flying at various working conditions. where I0 is the solar constant that has a value of
According to the fore engineering experience, pcontrol is 1367 W=m2 , ee is the orbital eccentricity, for earth
around 10 kW and the power required for payload is ee ¼ 0:0016708. And le is the true anomaly. day is
about 1 kW.17 the day angle of the sun and is given by

ppropulsion ¼ Fpropulsion  wind =propulsion ð8Þ

day ¼ 2  ðN  N0 Þ=365:2422 ð13Þ
where wind is the wind velocity which represents the
relative velocity between the airship and the flowing where N is the day number in a year, such as N ¼ 1
air, propulsion is the propulsive efficiency (about 0.50– when the date is the first day of January and N ¼ 365
0.80) which is a very important parameter for calcu- when the date is 31 December in an ordinary year, N0
lating the area of solar array. Fpropulsion is propulsion is the correction term of the day number.
force which can be calculated with At the stratospheric airship altitude h, the direct
solar irradiance, Ih , is equal to the product of solar
Fpropulsion ¼ Fdrag ¼ 0:5  a  2wind  Ctotal  V2=3
airship
direct radiation intensity on the top of the atmosphere
and the atmospheric transmittance. The solar direct
ð9Þ
radiation, the scattered radiation (Is ) and reflected
radiation (IR ) can be expressed as
where Fdrag is the total drag of the airship, a
is the density of the ambient air at the design altitude, Ih ¼ h  Itop
wind is the wind velocity and Ctotal is the total IR ¼ re  Ih
drag coefficient of the airship, which can be estimated ð14Þ
lam ð1  h Þ
as Is ¼ 0:5  Itop  sinðele Þ 
lam  1:41  h
Ctotal ¼ Nc  Cenvelope ð10Þ
where re is the reflectivity that can be approximately
where Nc is a constant with a assumed value of 1.8 in adopted as 0.18 for clear sky and 0.57 for overcast sky
this paper which is used for calculating the total drag and
coefficient. Cenvelope is the volumetric coefficient of the
airship envelope which can be given by 1
h ¼  ð1 þ clow ð ph =p0 Þchigh Þðe0:65lam þ e0:95lam Þ
2
0:172  fr1=3 þ 0:252  fr1:2 þ 1:032  fr2:7 ð15Þ
Cenvelope ¼
Re1=6
a  wind  L where the transmissivity of a solar beam through the
Re ¼
 atmosphere is correlated with modifying factors in the
ð11Þ first bracket on the right side of the equation (15). For
the modifying factors, clow and chigh are the calibration
where Re is the Reynolds number and  is the factors at low altitude and high altitude, respectively,
dynamic viscosity of the ambient air at the design ph and p0 are the atmospheric pressure at the altitude
altitude. h and the sea level.21 In the second bracket on the
right side of the equation (15), lam is the air mass
ratio when sunlight passes through the atmosphere,
Solar radiation model which can be described by
Solar radiation that affects the output power of solar 8   " qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi #
array on stratospheric airship consists of the solar >
>
> ph 1229 þ ð614  sinðele ÞÞ2
>
< p  0 5 ele 5 
direct radiation, the scattered radiation and the 0 614  sinðele Þ
lam ¼  
reflected radiation. The value of radiation can be >
> p ele ele DIP 4ele 5 0;
>
> h
obtained from the methods introduced by Farley,18 :  1þ
p0 DIP
 70 
DIP 4ele 5  þ DIP
Ran et al.19 and Dai et al.20
ð16Þ
The solar direct radiation intensity, Itop , irradiated
on the top of the atmosphere at the normal direction

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4 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 0(0)

 
where DIP is the angle of view at the altitude h, The normal vector n~ij nijx , nijy , nijz of tilted grid ij is
r
DIP ¼ cos1 ðrþhÞ. The radius of earth r is generally given by
selected to be 6400 km.
In equation (16), ele is the solar elevation angle  sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2  2ffi
@F @F @F @F @F @F
n~ij ¼ , , þ þ
@xij @yij @zij @xij @yij @zij
ele ¼ sin1 ðsinðdec Þ sinðÞ
ð17Þ ð20Þ
þ cosðdec Þ cosðÞ cosðhour ÞÞ
where dec is the declination of the sun,  is the local where F ¼ x2 þ z2  f2 ð yÞ and xij ¼ rð yij Þ  sin ij ,
latitude and hour is the hour angle of the sun.22 zij ¼ rð yij Þ  cos ij are the x and z coordinates of the
central point of tilted grid ij, respectively. yij is the y
coordinate of the central point and ij is the rotation
Energy generation model of solar array
angle of the grid ij. Which can be defined as
In the body coordinate system, based on the
preceding assumptions, the curved envelop and solar 1
yij ¼ i  dy þ dy
panel can be described as a rotating surface. We can 2 ð21Þ
obtain 1
ij ¼ j  d þ d
2
x2 þ z2 ¼ r2 ð yÞ 04y4L ð18Þ
In the inertial frame of reference,
 the unit vector of
To research the incident solar radiation model on solar direct radiation23 n~s ¼ nsx , nsy , nsz is a function
the solar array, the curved surface of the stratospheric of elevation angle and azimuth angle
airship is divided into finite grids with different areas,
which can be seen as the tilted planes, as shown in n~s ¼ ðcos ele  cos azi ,  cos ele  sin azi ,  sin ele Þ
Figure 1. If the area of each grid is small enough, the azi ¼ cos1 ððsinðele Þ sinðÞ
precision of calculation can satisfy engineering appli-
 sinðdec ÞÞ= cosðele Þ cosðÞÞ
cation. The streamlined airship is cut equally into m
sections along the axis of rotation. The length of each ð22Þ
section is dy. Each section is partitioned into n small
circular arcs which central angles are described as d In the body coordinate system, the incident solar
along the circumferential direction. For the reason radiation is different with the change of position
that each grid is small enough, the central point of (characterized as the y coordinate and the rotation
tilted planes can be calculated through the four ver- angle ) on airship envelop when the time is certain.
tices of the grid, to study the area and normal vector Therefore, it is conceivable to study incident solar
of tilted grid. radiation on the curved surface solar array during
The area of tilted grid ij is defined as Aij , which can the day and night.
be described by The solar direct radiation on the tilted grid ij can be
expressed by
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Aij ¼ r  d  dy  1 þ r0 ð yÞ2 ð19Þ
qdij ¼ e  !sign1  Ih  Aij ð23Þ

where  is the rotation angle of the generatrix along where e is the absorptivity of solar array to direct
the circumferential direction,  2 ð, Þ. incident from the sun, !sign1 is the projection

Figure 1. Schematic of airship and finite grid.

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Li et al. 5

coefficient of solar direct radiation on the tilted grid, surface solar array Q can be calculated using the
and which is defined as equation (31).
  XX  
n~s  n~ijI  n~s  n~ijI 5 0,  DIP 5 ele 5  þ DIP Q¼ sc  qdij þ qsij þqRij ð31Þ
!sign1 ¼
0 others i¼1 j¼1

ð24Þ
  where sc is a simple coefficient that can characterize
In the equation (24), n~ijI ¼ nijIx , nijIy , nijIz is the the properties of the tilted grid ij. The value of this
expression of the normal vector of tilted grid ij in coefficient is 1 when the tilted grid ij is covered with
the inertial frame of reference. It can be obtained by solar panel. Otherwise, its value is 0.
2 3 2 3 The output power of solar array, pSA , can be given
nijIx nijx by
6n 7 6 7
4 ijIy 5 ¼ R  4 nijy 5 ð25Þ
PSA ¼ sc  Q ð32Þ
nijIz nijz
where sc is the efficiency of the solar cell which
where R is the transformation matrix from the hull changes with the changing temperature and can be
coordinate system to the inertial frame of reference expressed by
2 3
C’  C S
 S’  C C
 S C
 S’  C sc ¼ sc ðTsc Þ ð33Þ
6 S  S’  C
S
 C 7
R ¼4 C ’  S C
 C þS
 S’  S 5
S’ C  S
C
 C’ where Tsc is the temperatures of solar cells which can
be calculated in the references.25,26
ð26Þ
In the equation (26), , ’ and
are the Euler
angles which represent yaw angle, pitch angle and
Optimization model of solar array area
roll angle, respectively.24 The solar array layout on a stratospheric airship is
The scattered radiation qsij on the tilted grid ij can shown in Figure 2. The solar array is installed
be given by on the upper surface of airship in symmetric form.
ycg is the center of symmetry along y axis. y1 is the
1 y coordinate of leading edge of solar array. y2 is the y
qsij ¼  ð1  cosð i ÞÞ  Is  Aij ð27Þ
2 coordinate of trailing edge of solar array. 0 is the
central angle of solar array, and 0 2 ð, Þ. lSA is
where i is the included angle between the plane the length of the solar array. The area of solar array,
normal and the gravity direction,20 and which is Aarray , can be expressed by
defined as
X2 ¼
y¼y X2
! Aarray ¼ Aij
n~  n~ ð34Þ
i ¼ cos 1  ijI  z  ð28Þ y¼y1 ¼1
n~ijI   n~z 
1 ¼ 0 =2, 2 ¼ 0 =2

where n~z ¼ ð0, 0, 1Þ.

The reflected radiation on the tilted grid is written The objective is the minimum the area of solar
as array. Definition of the optimization problem as
follows
qRij ¼   R  Is  Aij ð29Þ
min : Aarray ¼ Aarray ð y1 , y2 , 0 Þ ð35Þ
where R is the absorptivity of solar array to reflected
radiation from the earth,  is the index which takes subject to
into account the self-shadowing of the curved surface
solar array from the reflected radiation, which is 0 5 y1 5 ycg 5 y2 5 L
defined as 0 5 0 5 LB ð36Þ
( Qtotal 4QSA min
1 n~ijI  n~z 50
¼ ð30Þ
0 n~ijI  n~z 5 0
where LB is the lower bound of the central angle of
solar array which ensure that the solar array can
According to the three types of solar radiation output enough energy. QSA min is the minimum
mentioned above, the solar radiation on the curved output energy of solar array in daytime which

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6 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 0(0)

Figure 2. Schematic of the stratospheric airship and solar array.

Figure 3. Energy balance day/night.

should be larger than the required energy (QSA min ) in where FC is the fuel cell efficiency, E is the electro-
all day. As shown in Figure 3, QSA min and Qtotal can lyzer efficiency. kenergy is the factor of energy and T0 is
be can be obtained by a period. In this paper, the energy balance is per-
formed through an iterative process between the
QSA min ¼ Q1  FC  E þ Q3 energy produced by the solar array and the energy
ð37Þ consumed by the airship over the 24-h period. Q1 is
Qtotal ¼ kenergy  ptotal  T0
the energy available for storage and Q3 is the energy

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Li et al. 7

supplied for the power consuming function on the
airship. They can be calculated by
Z T0
Q1 ¼ !1  ð pSA  ptotal Þ  dt
0
Z T0
Q3 ¼ pSA dt  Q1
0 results show that the areas reduce by 7.3% and
where !1 is the calculational coefficient of Q1 , which
are defined as
1 ptotal 4pSA
!1 ¼
0 ptotal 4 pSA
Since there are variations in power requirements
depending on the operational conditions, the airship
will scale to different power levels depending on their
operation. Hence, an assumption should be noticed
that the energy storage facilities are capable of provid-
ing the enough energy required to maintain the oper-
ation of the airship when the output power of solar
array is insufficient.
Optimization problems are solved using a hybrid algo-
rithm consisting of the genetic algorithm treated as global
search algorithm and the Nelder–Mead simplex search
method used for optimizing possible solution.27–29
Optimization model validation
The validity of the optimization model is verified by
comparing the optimized results with the design par-
ameters of three stratospheric solar-powered airships
designed in references.17,30 Several main characteristic
parameters of these airships are listed in Table 1.
Based on the theoretical model proposed in this
paper, the areas of solar array are optimized under
the same preconditions as the reference designs. Due
to lack of working date in the reference, the areas of
solar array for the third reference airship was
optimized on two special working date, the summer
solstice and winter solstice.
The comparisons of optimized results and reference
designs for the area of solar array were shown in
Table 1. It can be found that the optimized areas
ð38Þ have definite improvements compared with the refer-
ence areas. For the first and second airships, the
10.4%. The area of solar array for the last airship
reduces by 6.8% and 15.7% around the winter solstice
and summer solstice, respectively.
In summary, the optimization model is verified by
comparison results. The optimization model can
ð39Þ
be utilized to optimize the area of solar array on a strato-
spheric airship with any geometric shape by simply
employing the axisymmetrical cross-section curve. Even
though the optimization model can be used for any cross-
section curve, the areas optimized in this study are specific
to the smooth, streamlined cross-section curve used, and
new validations have to be conducted to obtain reliable
optimum area of solar array on airships with various
complex cross-section curves.
Results and discussion
The envelope profile used in this study is the NPL low
drag shape which is generated by the National Physics
Laboratory (NPL)31 and consists of two ellipsoids of
revolution as shown in Figure 4. The axisymmetrical
cross-section curve of airship is expressed in the equa-
tion (39).
8 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
>
< b  1  ðy  a1 Þ2 =a21 04y 5 a1
rð yÞ ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
>
: b  1  ðy  a1 Þ2 =a2 a1 4y 5 ða1 þ a2 Þ
2
ð40Þ
where a1 and a2 are the major radii of two ellipsoids
with the values of 91 and 129 m, respectively. b is the
minor radius of the ellipsoids with the value of 54 m.

Table 1. Parameter value and optimized results of reference airships.

Parameter No. 1 No. 2 No. 3

Length/m 199.14 408 193.8

Fineness ratio 4.0 8.0 3.5
Solar cells efficiency 10.26% 12% 10%
Efficiency of the propulsion system 80% 80% 70%
Wind velocity/m/s 25 24 25
Airship’s latitude 40 N 52.4 N 40 N
Working date Aug. 8 Jun –
Design area of solar array/m2 4395 12206 6952
Optimized area of solar array/m2 4072 10839 Winter Summer
solstice: 6604 solstice: 5861
Improvement 7.3% 10.4% 6.8% 15.7%

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8 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 0(0)

Figure 4. Airship elliptical cross-section.

Figure 5. Effects of wind velocity on optimum area of solar array.

Based on these parameters, the area of solar array
is optimized using a MATLAB computer program in
this paper. During the simulation process, the ceiling
altitude of airship is 20 km. The heading of airship
points to the south, and the yaw angle, pitch angle
and roll angle are set to 0.
There are three main factors influencing on the
consumption of the power provided by solar array:
(1) the wind velocity, (2) airship’s latitude and (3)
working date. Hence, the effects of the three factors
on the optimum area of solar array should be ana-
lyzed to guide the preliminary design of solar array on
an airship.
Figure 5 shows the variations of optimum area
with the wind velocity for two airship’s latitude and
two flight date constraints. All other parameters are
kept the same. In winter solstice, the optimum area of
solar array is higher than in summer solstice, espe-
cially in the high latitude regions represented by 45
degrees north latitude (45 N). In the high latitude
regions in winter solstice, the optimum area can
be as high as 11,800 m2 when the wind velocity is
30 m/s. The implication of this is the airship cannot
be operated too fast in this situation. However, in
summer solstice, there is little difference in the opti-
mum area when the airship is operated at 15 N and
45 N.
In addition, with the wind velocity varied from 2 to
30 m/s, it can be seen that the optimum area increases
in all cases, especially in the high latitude regions

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Li et al.
around winter solstice. The optimum area initially
increases slowly with increase in wind velocity then
the increases rapidly. The reason is that the total
drag of the airship is directly proportional to the
square of wind velocity, as shown in Figure 6. Then,
the variation of total power required of airship with
the wind velocity is displayed. And the power required
increases from 11 to 117 kW. This implies that the
Figure 6. Total drag and total power required of airship.
Figure 7. Effects of airship’s latitude on optimum area of solar array.
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9
wind velocity affects optimum area through changing
the total power required of an airship.
As is illustrated in Figure 7, the effects of airship’s
latitudes on optimum areas of solar array are indicated
under different wind velocities and working dates. In
summer solstice, the effects of latitudes are minor.
When wind speed is 10 m/s, the optimum area varies
by less than 12%. And the optimum area varies from
10 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 0(0)

2330 to 3031 m2 at 25 m/s wind velocity. This result can
be used to help the route planning for an airship tra-
veling north-south. However, in winter solstice, with
the increase of latitude, the larger solar array is
needed to provide the power required of airship.
Figure 8 explains why the effects of latitudes on
optimum area are different on different working
dates. The area of solar array is hypothetically taken
as 4000 m2. As shown in Figure 8(a), the area enclosed
by output power curve and horizontal axes is corres-
ponded to the output energy of solar array. It can be
seen that the difference of areas enclosed by five
curves is very small in summer. Hence, the latitude
has a small influence on optimum area in summer.
Figure 8(b) presents the output power of solar array
at five latitudes in winter solstice. We can find that the
higher the latitude, the smaller the output power and
the shorter the total duration of outputting energy.
Examples of how the optimum area is influenced
by the working date are shown in Figure 9. The con-
straints are two airship’s latitude of 15 N and 45 N,
two wind velocities of 10 and 25 m/s. The optimum

Figure 8. Output power of solar array: (a) summer solstice and (b) winter solstice.

Figure 9. Effects of working date on optimum area of solar array.

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Li et al.
area initially decrease with increase in working date
then increases for four cases. In the high latitude
regions, the change of optimum area is remarkable
throughout the year, especially at 25 m/s wind vel-
ocity. The results are different when the airship cruises
in the low latitude regions. The optimum area has a
little change with increasing date. Based on the
results, an optimum area of solar array can be
designed to fly for an extended duration of time
(months to years) at high altitudes.
Conclusions
The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical model
for the optimization of the area of solar array on a
stratospheric solar-powered airship and to study the
effects of several factors on the optimum area under
different operational conditions. A comprehensive
theoretical model is proposed, and then is verified
by optimizing the area of solar array of three strato-
spheric solar-powered airships. Verification results of
the optimization method show that the optimized
areas achieving satisfactory energy output have defin-
ite improvements compared with the reference area. It
is believed that the present model and program can
provide enough information about optimized areas of
solar array for an airship.
The results show that designing optimized areas
may be a deal way to reduce the weight of energy
system and to improve the integrated performance
of airship. The wind velocity has an important influ-
ence on the optimum area, and some guiding sugges-
tions to the design of cruising speed can be obtained.
In addition, based on the effects of airship’s latitude
and working date on optimum area, it can be found
that the optimal result of one factor has a strong
dependence on the other factors.
This work neglects the coupling effects of multiple
factors to optimum area of solar array. It can be
believed that the research of coupling effects may pro-
vide more reliable and accurate information about the
optimum area. Hence, the works on the effects of
these critical dependencies form the basis for some
further investigation.
Acknowledgments
The authors also are grateful to Dr Yuanyuan Zhang,
China University of Mining and Technology, for her help
in writing, and to Prof Qiumin Dai, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, for his precious suggestions
about this paper, and to Huafei Du and Dr Junhui Meng,
for their hard work and passion. The authors also are grate-
ful to the reviewer and the editor for their precious com-
ments about this paper.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
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11
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This work was supported by Shanghai
Aerospace Science and Technology Innovation Fund No.
SAST201268 and the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant No. 51307004 and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
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