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Offshore wind power production is an attractive clean energy option, but the difficulty of access can lead to expensive and rare opportunities for maintenance. Smart loads management (controls) are investigated for their potential to increase the fatigue life of damaged offshore wind turbine rotor blades. This study will consider two commonly encountered damage types for wind turbine blades, the trailing edge disbond (bond line failure) and shear web disbond, and show how 3D finite element modeling can be used to quantify the effect of operations and control strategies designed to extend the fatigue life of damaged blades. Modern wind turbine blades are advanced composite structures, and blade optimization problems can be complex with many structural design variables and a wide variety of aeroelastic design requirements. The multi-level design method is an aeroelastic structural design technique for beam-like structures in which the general design problem is divided into a 1D beam optimization and a 2D section optimization. As a demonstration of aeroelastic design, the multi-level design method is demonstrated for the internal structural design of a modern composite rotor blade. Aeroelastic design involves optimization of system geometry features as well as internal features, and this is demonstrated in the design of a flying wing aircraft. Control methods such as feedback control also have the capability alleviate aeroelastic design requirements and this is also demonstrated in the flying wing aircraft example. In the case of damaged wind turbine blades, load mitigation control strategies have the potential to mitigate the effects of damage, and allow partial operation to avoid shutdown. The load mitigation strategies will be demonstrated for a representative state-of-the-art wind turbine (126m rotor diameter). An economic incentive will be provided for the proposed operations strategies, in terms of weighing the cost and risk of implementation against the benefits of increased revenue due to operation of damaged turbines. The industry trend in wind turbine design is moving towards very large blades, causing the basic design criterion to change as aeroelastic effects become more important. An ongoing 100 m blade (205 m rotor diameter) design effort intends to investigate these design challenges. As a part of that effort, this thesis will investigate damage tolerant design strategies to ensure next-generation blades are more reliable.

Effects of engine placement on flutter characteristics of a very flexible high-aspect-ratio wing are investigated using the code NATASHA (Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability of HALE Aircraft). The analysis was validated against published results for divergence and flutter of swept wings and found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental results of the classical wing of Goland. Moreover, modal frequencies and damping obtained for the Goland wing were found in excellent agreement with published results based on a new continuum-based unsteady aerodynamic formulation. Gravity for this class of wings plays an important role in flutter characteristics. In the absence of aerodynamic and gravitational forces and without an engine, the kinetic energy of the first two modes are calculated. Maximum and minimum flutter speed locations coincide with the area of minimum and maximum kinetic energy of the second bending and torsion modes. Time-dependent dynamic behavior of a turboshaft engine (JetCat SP5) is simulated with a transient engine model and the nonlinear aeroelastic response of the wing to the engine's time-dependent thrust and dynamic excitation is presented. Below the flutter speed, at the wing tip and behind the elastic axis, the impulse engine excitation leads to a stable limit cycle oscillation; and for the ramp kind of excitation, beyond the flutter speed, at 75% span, behind the elastic axis, it produces chaotic oscillation of the wing. Both the excitations above the flutter speed are stabilized, on the inboard portion of the wing. Effects of engine placement and sweep on flutter characteristics of a backswept flying wing resembling the Horten IV are explored using NATASHA. This aircraft exhibits a non-oscillatory yawing instability, expected in aircraft with neither a vertical tail nor yaw control. More important, however, is the presence of a low frequency “body-freedom flutter” mode. The aircraft center of gravity was held fixed during the study, which allowed aircraft controls to trim similarly for each engine location, and minimized flutter speed variations along the inboard span. Maximum flutter speed occurred for engine placement just outboard of 60% span with engine center of gravity forward of the elastic axis. The body-freedom flutter mode was largely unaffected by the engine placement except for cases in which the engine is placed at the wing tip and near the elastic axis. In the absence of engines, aerodynamics, and gravity, a region of minimum kinetic energy density for the first symmetric free-free bending mode is also near the 60% span. A possible relationship between the favorable flutter characteristics obtained by placing the engines at that point and the region of minimum kinetic energy is briefly explored. Effects of multiple engine placement on a similar type of aircraft are studied. The results showed that multiple engine placement increases flutter speed particularly when the engines are placed in the outboard portion of the wing (60% to 70% span), forward of the elastic axis, while the lift to drag ratio is affected negligibly. The behavior of the sub- and supercritical eigenvalues is studied for two cases of engine placement. NATASHA captures a hump body-freedom flutter with low frequency for the clean wing case, which disappears as the engines are placed on the wings. In neither case is there any apparent coalescence between the unstable modes. NATASHA captures other non-oscillatory unstable roots with very small amplitude, apparently originating with flight dynamics. For the clean-wing case, in the absence of aerodynamic and gravitational forces, the regions of minimum kinetic energy density for the first and third bending modes are located around 60% span. For the second mode, this kinetic energy density has local minima around the 20% and 80% span. The regions of minimum kinetic energy of these modes are in agreement with calculations that show a noticeable increase in flutter speed at these regions if engines are placed forward of the elastic axis. High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft can achieve sustained, uninterrupted flight time if they use solar power. Wing morphing of solar powered HALE aircraft can significantly increase solar energy absorbency. An example of the kind of morphing considered in this thesis requires the wings to fold so as to orient a solar panel to be hit more directly by the sun's rays at specific times of the day. In this study solar powered HALE flying wing aircraft are modeled with three beams with lockable hinge connections. Such aircraft are shown to be capable of morphing passively, following the sun by means of aerodynamic forces and engine thrusts. The analysis underlying NATASHA was extended to include the ability to simulate morphing of the aircraft into a “Z” configuration. Because of the “long endurance” feature of HALE aircraft, such morphing needs to be done without relying on actuators and at as near zero energy cost as possible. The emphasis of this study is to substantially demonstrate the processes required to passively morph a flying wing into a Z-shaped configuration and back again.