Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Analysis of Parachute Canopies Design for Aludra SR-10 UAV as a Parachute Recovery Systems (PRS)
Keywords:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Parachute Recovery System, Computational Fluid Dynamic, ParachuteAbstract
Unmanned Systems Technology (UST) Aludra SR-10 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
was purposely designed for survey and mapping mission. In the early design stage of
Aludra SR-10 UAV, skid and belly landing method was used as a recovery method. This
type of landing method may encounter a harsh landing on hard soil and gravel,
producing high impact momentum on the aircraft body and may cause structural or
system damage. To increase the safety of Aludra SR-10 UAV operation, Parachute
Recovery System (PRS) are purposely design to replace the belly landing technique for
landing method. This study was performed by simulation approach (using
Computational Fluid Dynamic, CFD) to analyse an aerodynamic performance for
selecting the best canopy design that can produce higher drag during recovery process.
This computational study focuses on an aerodynamic flow simulation over three
dimensional surface on two different canopy designs (i.e. annular canopy and
cruciform canopy), and also focuses on drag coefficient in a steady and turbulent
condition. Two‐equation k-ε turbulence flow was modelled by adopting Navier-Stokes
numerical equations to simulate aerodynamic characteristics and drag. The
computational results with an efficient grid study shows an annular parachute canopy
produced highest drag coefficient (1.03) than cruciform parachute canopy (0.91). The
findings also highlighted the significance of separation and recirculating flows behind
studied geometries, which in turn was responsible in producing the drag. This
computational simulation analysis successfully provided a baseline annular parachute
design was about 2.41 meter of the nominal diameter was selected as the main
parachute which can be applied for this research.
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