The Viscous Vortex Particle Method for Wake Modeling of Mars Rotorcraft

Speaker: Tove Ågren, Analytical Mechanics Associates, NASA Ames Research Center
August 26, 2025

Presentation

Abstract

Future Mars rotorcraft concepts are expected to be larger, more capable, and far more complex than the coaxial Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Proposed multi-rotor configurations pose new challenges for existing simulation models in the extreme aerodynamic regime of the Martian atmosphere. A central difficulty lies in capturing rotor wake dynamics and interference effects accurately, without incurring the prohibitive cost of blade-resolved CFD. In this seminar, the presenter will discuss the application of the Viscous Vortex Particle Method (VVPM) as a mid-fidelity tool for simulating rotor wakes of Mars rotorcraft. The talk will present validation results against Ingenuity hover and forward-flight data, highlight how VVPM captures coaxial interference and unsteady loading, and extend the discussion to next-generation multi-rotor designs such as a Mars hexacopter. Finally, the seminar will outline an approach for leveraging VVPM data to derive reduced-order wake models for integration into flight dynamics and control design, emphasizing both the numerical methodology and its implications for future planetary rotorcraft.

Biography

Tove Ågren holds an M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a researcher in the Aeromechanics Office at NASA Ames Research Center, where her work focuses on aero- and flight dynamics modeling for Mars rotorcraft, with applications of machine learning to aerodynamic prediction and system identification. In 2023, she led in-situ flight testing of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, and she is currently advancing rotor wake modeling methods for next-generation Mars rotorcraft.

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