ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Comparative Study of Bio-Inspired and Ingenuity Airfoils at Martian Low Reynolds Numbers
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1
Aerospace Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
2
Research Mentor, Interdisciplinary Research Center for Aviation and Space Exploration, King
Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Submission date: 2025-09-20
Final revision date: 2025-10-08
Acceptance date: 2025-11-18
Publication date: 2025-12-31
Journal of Undergraduate Research International 2025;1(2):126-134
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ABSTRACT
Aerial flight on Mars poses aerodynamic challenges due to its thin atmosphere, resulting in low Reynolds number (Re) conditions where conventional airfoils suffer from early separation and high drag. This study examines the performance of three airfoils: bio-inspired OWL, NASA’s CLF5605, and AS6097, at Re = 23000, representative of Martian rotorcraft operation. Two turbulence models, k–ω SST and SST Transition, were tested using steady RANS CFD in ANSYS Fluent with dynamic similarity applied for terrestrial conditions. The SST Transition model showed better agreement with experiments, particularly in capturing laminar separation bubbles. CLF5605 achieved the best aerodynamic efficiency, the OWL airfoil exhibited smooth trends and close validation agreement, while AS6097 produced the highest lift but inconsistent drag behavior.