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Airborne wind energy (AWE) vehicles maximize energy production by constantly operating at extreme wing loading, permitted by high flight speeds. Additionally, the wide range of wind speeds and the presence of flow inhomogeneities and gusts create a complex and demanding flight environment for AWE systems. Adaptation to different flow conditions is normally achieved by conventional wing control surfaces and, in case of ground generator-based systems, by varying the reel-out speed. These control degrees of freedom enable to remain within the operational envelope, but cause significant penalties in terms of energy output. A significantly greater adaptability is offered by shape-morphing wings, which have the potential to achieve optimal performance at different flight conditions by tailoring their airfoil shape and lift distribution at different levels along the wingspan. Hence, the application of compliant structures for AWE wings is very promising. Furthermore, active gust load alleviation can be achieved through morphing, which leads to a lower weight and an expanded flight envelope, thus increasing the power production of the AWE system. This work presents a procedure to concurrently optimize the aerodynamic shape, compliant structure, and composite layup of a morphing wing for AWE applications. The morphing concept is based on distributed compliance ribs, actuated by electromechanical linear actuators, guiding the deformation of the flexible—yet load-carrying—composite skin. The goal of the aerostructural optimization is formulated as a high-level requirement, namely to maximize the average annual power production per wing area of an AWE system by tailoring the shape of the wing, and to extend the flight envelope of the wing by actively alleviating gust loads. The results of the concurrent multidisciplinary optimization show a 50.7% increase of extracted power with respect to a sequentially optimized design, highlighting the benefits of morphing and the potential of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphing systems able to efficiently adjust their characteristics to resolve the conflicting demands of changing operating conditions offer great potential for enhanced performance and functionality. The main practical challenge, however, consists in combining the desired compliance to accomplish radical reversible geometry modifications at reduced actuation effort with the requirement of high stiffness imposed by operational functions. A potential decoupling strategy entails combining the conformal shape adaptation benefits of distributed compliance with purely elastic stiffness variability provided by embedded bi-stable laminates. This selective compliance can allow for on-demand stiffness adaptation by switching between the stable states of the internal elements. The current paper considers the optimal positioning of the bi-stable components within the structure while assessing the energy required for morphing under aerodynamic loading. Compared to a time-invariant system, activating specific deformation modes permits decreasing the amount of actuation energy, and hence the amount of actuation material to be carried. A concurrent design and optimisation framework is implemented to develop selective configurations targeting different flight conditions. First, an aerodynamically favourable high-lift mode achieves large geometric changes due to reduced actuation demands. This is only possible by virtue of the internally tailored compliance, arising from the stable state switch of the embedded bi-stable components. A second, stiff configuration, targets operation under increased aerodynamic loading. The dynamic adequacy of the design is proved via high fidelity fluid–structure interaction simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]