Experimental and rans analysis of full mars airplane configurations

To evaluate Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation and to understand control surface effects in low Reynolds number flow condition (60,000), wind tunnel experiment and RANS simulation results of the full configuration of a Mars airplane with control surface deflection are obtained. The RANS analysis is conducted using FaSTAR, that bases on Menter’s k-ω shear-stress transport (SST) model with γ-Reθ model for turbulence model. The lift coefficient and pitching moment coefficient of the airplane with zero control surface deflection predicted by the RANS simulation and those measured by the wind tunnel experiment show qualitatively good agreement while those obtained by the RANS simulation are lower quantitatively. As for the elevator effects, the RANS simulation and experiment results show good agreement. Aileron effects obtained by the RANS simulation and experiment also show good agreement at side slip angle of 0 degree, while they have discrepancy in the flow conditions with sideslip angle. The rudder effects obtained by the RANS simulation and experiment show qualitatively good agreement except for the cases at very large side slip angle.