ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Figure from article: Comparative Study of...
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
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.
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top