Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Capsule Half-Cone Angle on a Supersonic Parachute System

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of the capsule half-cone angle on the dynamics of supersonic parachute systems are investigated. The supersonic flow over three-dimensional rigid parachute models are studied by numerically solving compressible Navier-Stokes equations. In this study, the parachute system has a capsule and a canopy. The cases with different capsule half-cone angle are carried out. The computational results show that unsteady pulsating flow fields exit in all the cases and are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The results also show that the capsule wake–canopy shock interaction causes a significantly higher pressure around the parachute system in comparison to the capsule shock–canopy shock interaction, thus providing the primary source of the unsteadiness in the flow field. As the capsule half-cone angle (θ) is increased, the difference in the pressure distribution inside the canopy also increases, and the wake-shock interaction plays a more significant role in the unsteady flow mode. Moreover, when θ is increased, this results in weaker aerodynamic interactions, including the wake-shock and shock-shock interactions, which is favorable for a supersonic parachute system.