Reductions in parachute drag due to forebody wake effects

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate approximate analytical methods for predicting the reduction in parachute drag due to forebody wake effects. The drag of a 20/sup 0/ conical ribbon parachute was measured at several axial stations behind an ogive-cylinder forebody with and without fins. The same parachute was tested in undisturbed flow (where wake effects were negligible) so that the effects of suspension line length on parachute drag could be separated from the drag losses caused by the turbulent wake. Total head pressure surveys were made across the forebody wake and integrated across the canopy skirt area to determine the effective dynamic pressure acting on the parachute. Experimental results confirmed the validity of the underlying physical model of the parachute/wake interaction: the ratio of parachute drag behind a forebody divided by wake-free parachute drag is equal to the ratio of effective dynamic pressure acting on the parachute divided by freestream dynamic pressure.