Isolated Rotor Forward Flight Testing from One Atmosphere down to Martian Atmospheric Densities

Ament, Geoffrey A ; Koning, Witold J F

关键词: AERODYNAMIC COEFFICIENTS;    AIR CURRENTS;    ATMOSPHERIC DENSITY;    AXES OF ROTATION;    COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS;    FLIGHT TESTS;    HELICOPTERS;    HORIZONTAL FLIGHT;    LOW PRESSURE;    MEASURING INSTRUMENTS;    ROTORS;    THRUST CHAMBERS;    MARS ATMOSPHERE;   

RP-ID  :  ARC-E-DAA-TN51027

学科分类：航空航天科学

美国|英语

来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 摘 要 】

With the recent interest in Martian exploration using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), an experimental study was conducted to investigate rotor performance at Martian atmospheric conditions. Both simulation and testing of rotors is vital for the evaluation of performance and behavior of a rotor, especially when subjected to a Marian atmosphere. One critical test that has not been performed to date is simulated helicopter forward flight in a Martian atmosphere. To achieve this, the test must be conducted in a facility which can be evacuated to the atmospheric pressure and density of Mars. A unique 40-in diameter rotor, roughly approximating a proposed design for a Mars Helicopter (MH), was tested in forward flight at Mars atmospheric pressure at the NASA Ames Planetary Aeolian Laboratory (PAL). The goal of this experiment was to collect rotor thrust, RPM, power, torque, and acoustics measurements. Subsequently, these results are compared with simulated cases using a mid-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. As expected, rotor thrust and power results are drastically reduced when under low atmospheric conditions. In addition, Reynolds number effects seem to play a vital role that cannot be neglected.