Seminar Series: "High-Fidelity CFD Simulations of Rotorcraft for Earth, Mars, and Titan"

Additional Information:

Abstract: Planetary exploration with aerial vehicles, as improbable as it seemed only a few decades ago, has now proven to be a formidable opportunity to increase the yield of science missions to extraterrestrial worlds.

This seminar will present high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of rotorcraft operating in diverse atmospheric conditions—ranging from Earth’s atmosphere to the thin air of Mars and the thick, methane-rich environment of Titan.

Speaker Bio: Patricia Ventura Diaz is a senior research scientist of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at NASA Ames Research Center in California. She has been instrumental in modeling & simulation of various aerospace vehicles including rotorcraft using high-fidelity CFD methods. She has supported multiple VTOL projects including Urban Air Mobility on Earth, a helicopter on Mars, and a nuclear-powered drone on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. She is a ski instructor, a surfer, and a volleyball player. Patricia received B.S and M.S from Polytechnical University of Madrid in Spain and M.S from SUPAERO in France.