Fluid-structure interaction study of the supersonic parachute using large-eddy simulation

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to model the dynamic characteristics of an opened supersonic disk-gap-band parachute.

Design/methodology/approach

A fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method with body-fitted mesh is used to simulate the supersonic parachute. The compressible flow is modeled using large-eddy simulation (LES). A contact algorithm based on the penalty function with a virtual contact domain is proposed to solve the negative volume problem of the body-fitted mesh. Automatic unstructured mesh generation and automatic mesh moving schemes are used to handle complex deformations of the canopy.

Findings

The opened disk-gap-band parachute is simulated using Mach 2.0, and the simulation results fit well with the wind tunnel test data. It is found that the LES model can successfully predict large-scale turbulent vortex in the flow. This study also demonstrates the capability of the present FSI method as a tool to predict shock oscillation and breathing phenomenon of the canopy.

Originality/value

The contact algorithm based on the penalty function with a virtual contact domain is proposed for the first time. This methodology can be used to solve the negative volume problem of the dynamic mesh in the flow field.

Citation

Yang, X., Yu, L. and Zhao, X.-S. (2018), "Fluid-structure interaction study of the supersonic parachute using large-eddy simulation", Engineering Computations, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 157-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-06-2016-0195