Date of Award
12-2016
Access Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Department
Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Dr. Richard "Pat" Anderson
First Committee Member
Dr. Scott Martin
Second Committee Member
Dr. Mark Ricklick
Third Committee Member
Dr. John Ekaterinaris
Abstract
In the summer of 2014, Performance Designs, Inc. contacted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Eagle Flight Research Center to lead an investigation on square parachute design and optimization using modern computational methods to reduce costs in experimental testing. This thesis investigates the foundation for using an implicit fluid-structure interaction computational model to tackle the challenges of modeling a highly-flexible, porous fabric for design optimization of a parafoil parachute’s transient performance. Canopy deformations of a single-cell square parafoil using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model with nonlinear material modeling is compared to an experimental setup of matching geometry. The results of this thesis yielded a partial match of 25% between the experimental and FSI model deformations and thus asserts that fluid-structural modeling using ANSYS Multiphysics can be used to model square parachutes.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Burnett, Brandon, "Coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling of a Parafoil" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. 294.
https://commons.erau.edu/edt/294
