A high-fidelity coupled computational fluid dynamics and comprehensive analysis solver is developed for helicopter flight on Mars. The objectives are accurate prediction of flight loads and fundamental understanding of Martian aeromechanics. Performance, structural loads, pitch link loads, rotor wake, and interrotor blade separation are studied for hingeless and flap articulated coaxial rotors. In the absence of any validation data, pressure chamber tests are carried out at Mars-like conditions on a single rotor in hover. The data provided an elementary assessment of rotor behavior and a baseline for model validation. Predictions of the high-fidelity solver are also compared with a lower-fidelity lifting-line comprehensive analysis. It is generally concluded that lower-fidelity tools are not adequate for capturing the complex flow phenomena encountered on Mars. A motion and loads comparison of two fundamental hub types revealed that 1) an articulated hub has similar interrotor blade separation as hingeless on Mars, 2) a hingeless hub experiences only marginally higher (6–7%) flap bending moments, and 3) an articulated hub can lower steady pitch link loads (by an order of magnitude) at a marginal expense of oscillatory loads, 15% higher.

开发了一种高保真耦合计算流体动力学和综合分析求解器，用于火星上的直升机飞行。目标是准确预测飞行载荷并基本了解火星航空力学。对无铰链和襟翼铰接式同轴转子的性能，结构载荷，变桨连杆载荷，转子尾流和转子间叶片分离进行了研究。在没有任何验证数据的情况下，在类似火星的条件下对悬停的单个转子进行压力室测试。数据提供了转子行为的基本评估以及模型验证的基准。高保真解算器的预测结果也与低保真提升线综合分析进行了比较。通常得出的结论是，低保真度工具不足以捕获火星上遇到的复杂流动现象。两种基本轮毂类型的运动和载荷比较显示：1）铰接式轮毂具有与无火星在火星上相似的转子间叶片间距； 2）无铰链的轮毂仅经历略高（6-7％）的襟翼弯曲力矩，以及3）铰接式轮毂可以降低稳定节距连杆的负载（一个数量级），而振荡负载的边际成本要高出15％。