With more than 70 successful flights, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter demonstrated the feasibility of aerial exploration on Mars and opened the door to similar missions on other planets. Future planetary rotorcraft will be bigger and heavier to accomplish new scientific and exploratory goals.

The increasing accessibility of space, fueled by the rise of commercial players, is unlocking new frontiers for technological innovation and scientific discovery.

Exploiting fluid-structure interactions using flexible structures and actuation can improve performance in biologically inspired swimming and morphing airfoils. Open challenges in this realm are the efficient high-fidelity simulation of such fluid-structure interaction phenomena, especially in three-dimensions, as well as solving inverse problems for optimal design and control.

Les maillages courbes, ou d’ordre élevé, sont utilisés depuis longtemps comme support pour simulations par éléments ou volumes finis. Leur flexibilité a traditionnellement été mise à profit pour fournir une meilleure résolution des frontières CAD que celle offerte par des discrétisations linéaires par morceaux.

This thesis addresses the evaluation of several homogenization methods for porous short fiber-reinforced composites (SFRC) in isothermal linear elasticity and elasto-plasticity with hardening. First to ensure an unbiased assessment of these methods, only full-field finite element (FE) versions are developed and studied, excluding analytical mean-field models.

The global energy landscape is evolving towards decentralization and reliance on renewable sources. This rapid adoption underscores the need for energy storage and security of supply to ensure stability amid rising demand. Thermal power plants can provide this flexibility within the future energy mix.

Mesh generation is the cornerstone of numerical simulation. Block-structured meshes, made of large quadrilateral or hexahedral blocks, are bound to dominate the scene as they allow to leverage hyper-efficient numerical methods (high-order finite elements, or GPU-ready finite differences).

In the current evolving distribution grid, microgrids are emerging as valuable tools that can facilitate the integration of renewable energies. In recent years, DC microgrids have garnered interest due to several advantages. These advantages include fewer conversions, the absence of reactive power and frequency, and lower line losses.

The global imperative to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions necessitates adaptive energy transition strategies. This thesis examines uncertainty-aware energy transition pathways, focusing on the Belgian energy system.

With climate change, human societies must phase out fossil fuels. However, fossil fuels are versatile energy sources. They are present everywhere in our energy systems and daily lives. Studying fossil-free energy systems is complex as it must integrate all energy-consuming sectors and consider their synergies.