Numerical study on the influence of fabric permeability on the inflation process and aerodynamic characteristics of disk-gap-band parachute

Abstract

Supersonic parachute plays a crucial role in Mars exploration missions. The disk-gap-band (DGB) parachute he been used in all the successful Mars exploration missions. The parachute is fabricated from different porous fabric materials, and the fabric permeability is an important design and performance parameter, now it has been proved that the fabric permeability of porous canopy has important effects on the complicated flow fields around the parachute and in turn effects the nonlinear deformation and aerodynamic performances of the flexible canopy. However, till now, the influence mechanism of fabric permeability on the fluid-structure interaction mechanism and aerodynamic performance of supersonic flexible porous parachute in the inflation process still remain unknown. Therefore, in this study, a fluid-structure coupling method was used to numerically simulate the inflation process of disk-gap-band parachute with different fabric permeability (i.e., different fabric materials), and the effect of fabric permeability on the aerodynamic performance of disk-gap-band parachute was also analyzed. The results showed that the fabric permeability has a significant effect on the inflation process of DGB parachute with different fabric materials. During the inflation process, the oscillation angle and drag coefficients of the parachute both gradually decreased with the increase of fabric permeability, while the stability performance of the parachute became more complicated. Furthermore, it was also found that the influence of fabric permeability was different under subsonic and supersonic conditions. The K5836-3 fabric used as canopy material has better stability under subsonic conditions, and the 42105 fabric material has the best stability under supersonic conditions.