Computational and Experimental Comparison of CLF5605 and Roamx-0201 Martian Helicopter Rotor Airfoils

This study compares the performance of the CLF5605 rotor airfoil—which flew on Ingenuity—with that of a new optimized roamx-0201 airfoil designed for Martian conditions at NASA Ames Research Center. Specifically, performance is studied at a Reynolds number of 20,000 and a Mach number of 0.60 across a range of angles of attack. In this regime, flow can be highly sensitive to geometry and operating conditions, and results from computational analysis and physical testing can be strongly affected by small differences in setup. Accordingly, in order to achieve confidence in observed trends, the airfoils are studied using three independent state-of-the-art methodologies: implicit large-eddy simulations using NASA’s OVERFLOW solver, direct numerical simulations using the high-order PyFR solver, and experimental testing in the Mars Wind Tunnel at Tohoku University. Across methodologies, the roamx-0201 airfoil achieves an [Formula: see text] improvement in lift-to-drag ratio relative to the CLF5605 airfoil. Moreover, OVERFLOW and PyFR results show that the roamx-0201 airfoil has superior stall characteristics and can achieve a maximum lift [Formula: see text] higher than the CLF5605 airfoil. The work provides a strong body of evidence to support further studies into the use of rotors based on the optimized roamx-0201 airfoil for future Mars helicopter missions.