CFD Analysis of MARID
CFD Analysis of MARID: Extracting Aerodynamic Stability Derivatives with SimScale MARID is an autonomous long-endurance drone built around a single aft-mounted electric thruster, rotating folding wings, and a liquid hydrogen fuel system. Unlike a conventional aircraft, it has no horizontal tail — pitch stability must come from the wing geometry itself, or from active control. Before flying fast, we needed numbers: specifically, how lift scales with angle of attack (CL α ), and whether the aircraft self-corrects pitch disturbances or amplifies them (Cm α ). To find out, I ran three RANS CFD simulations on SimScale at α = 0°, 5°, and 15° at V = 60 m/s. Geometry and Mesh The simulation geometry is the MARID-alt configuration ( B9_TE5.stl ) — 77,634 triangles including the V-belly keel fillet. The domain is a large rectangular box with the drone nose pointing into the inlet face...
