FLUID-SOLID INTERACTIVE MODELLING OF FABRIC-BASED ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY SIZED AERODYNAMIC DECELARATORS

Despite humble origins, fabric-based parachutes are still the main way to decelerate aircraft, landing vehicles and rockets. However, experimental testing of parachutes is expensive and impractical for various canopy shapes and opening velocities. Numerical methods offer an alternative to these costly experiments and provide analyses in a wide range of environments. Fluid-Structural Interaction is utilised to model the deployment, inflation, and descent of a parachute. This paper utilises explicit time-marching finite-element and computational fluid dynamics codes to model the deployment process of a parachute from flat to fully inflated. A hemispherical Air Force type parachute and the annular NASA Curiosity rover parachute were modelled to benchmark the state-of-the-art in inflation computational modelling to existing experimental data. Overall, this paper offers three main areas of focus. First, a study into the effects of penalty-based versus Lagrangian contact algorithms to limit fabric impingement with a hybridised model. Second, a comparison of geometricbased cloth modelling techniques to physical-based strategies to improve parachute folding and unfurling. And third, parachute inflation simulation for two models at multiple entry velocities utilising both Large Eddy Simulation and a pressure-based numerical method. By improving parachute inflation simulation methods, the accuracy of modelling the deployment of parachutes of various designs is greatly increased.