Supporting mechanism design of parachutes for 2.4m×2.4m transonic wind tunnel in CARDC

Abstract

In order to carry out the wind tunnel test of the parachutes in 2.4m×2.4m transonic wind tunnel of CARDC which is located at Mianyang, a supporting mechanism for the attack angle from 0 to 25 degrees at Mach 0.4 and 0.8 is designed and optimized in the present paper. Three section shapes (circle, ellipse, and airfoil) are utilized to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics and mechanical performances of the designed supporting mechanism. The aerodynamic and mechanical simulated results of the three different section shapes are compared and discussed. The optimized design is verified by wind tunnel experiments. The results show that the section shape of circle has the largest modal frequency of first order (53.497Hz), the smallest Mises stress (34.1MPa) and displacement (0.4735mm). It is the best section shape of the three for the supporting mechanism. The investigation in the present paper has a good significant meaning to the testing technologies of the wind tunnel experiments for parachutes.