Effects of characteristic geometric parameters on parafoil lift and drag

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Effects of characteristic geometric parameters on parafoil lift and drag

Cao, Yihua / Zhu, Xu

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the effects of characteristic geometric parameters on parafoil aerodynamic performance by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique.

Design/methodology/approach –

The main characteristic geometric parameters cover the planform geometry, arc-anhedral angle, basic airfoil and leading-edge cut. By using the CFD technique, a large number of numerical parafoil models with different geometric parameters are developed to study the correlations between these parameters and parafoil aerodynamic performance.

Findings –

The CFD technique is feasible and effective to study the effects of characteristic geometric parameters on parafoil aerodynamic performance in three-dimensional (3-D) flowfield condition. The planform geometry can affect the aerodynamic performance obviously. An increase in arc-anhedral angle decreases the lift of a parafoil but has little effect on lift-drag ratio. The model with smaller leading-edge radius and thinner thickness of parafoil section achieves larger lift-drag ratio. The leading-edge cut has little effect on lift but increase drag dramatically; meanwhile, its effect on flowfield is confined to the nearby region of leading edge.

Practical implications –

The presented 3-D numerical simulation results of parafoil models are shown to have good agreement with the tunnel test data in general trend; meanwhile, considering its relatively low-cost, the CFD method could be further used to predict coefficients in pre-research or at non-experimental conditions.

Originality/value –

The paper can form the foundation of further studies on parafoil aerodynamic performance with different geometric parameters.