Dear Colleagues,

Offshore wind energy plays a significant role in promoting the transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy. An offshore wind turbine (OWT) system is a complex combination of aero-hydro-servo-elastic models involving multidiscipline knowledge, and it is subjected to the stochastic short- and long-term variations in the environmental loads, making the load effects of the system very complicated. In addition, offshore wind turbines, especially floating ones, are only in the early development stage, and limited experiences and guidelines exist. These pose great challenges for achieving a safe and reliable design with a low cost throughout the intended service life of OWTs.

To address these challenges, tremendous research efforts are required from various perspectives, including the design of wind turbine structures and mechanical systems, modeling, dynamic analysis, numerical and model testing techniques, control algorithms, etc. In addition, AI, machine learning, and digital-twin technologies are of great interest to facilitate analysis of large-scale wind farms, installation, operation, and maintenance.

This Special Issue aims to address the key challenges and enhance technologies for dynamic analysis to improve the design of OWTs, with contributions both from academia and industry. Various topics include, but are not limited to:

• Innovative concepts and technologies;
• Stochastic- and reliability-based design and analysis;
• Conceptual and detailed design;
• High-fidelity aerodynamics and hydrodynamics;
• Integrated aero-hydro-servo-elastic modeling and analysis;
• Advanced control technologies;
• Stress and strength analysis of OWTs;
• Novel conceptual studies including multi-rotor designs;
• Novel materials;
• Substructure design and analysis;
• Mooring line design and analysis;
• Rotor and blade design and analysis;
• Innovative drivetrain design and analysis;
• Numerical and experimental analysis;
• Machine learning and digital twins.

Dr. Shuaishuai Wang
Prof. Dr. Yihan Xing
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Designs is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• innovative design
• modeling and analysis
• fully coupled and decoupled analysis approaches
• nonlinear dynamic load effects
• stochastic environmental conditions
• novel materials, mooring line design and analysis
• substructure design and analysis
• rotor and blade design and analysis
• drivetrain design and analysis
• numerical and experi-mental methods
• machine learning and digital twin technologies