Experimental Investigations on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Parachutes in Mars Probe Decelerator System

Abstract

An experimental study is conducted to characterize the aerodynamic performances of two parachutes in the Mars probe decelerator system and the experiments are carried out in the 2.4 m×2.4 m transonic wind tunnel. The lift, drag and pitch moment coefficients versus the angle of attack from 0 to 25 degrees at Mach 0.4 and 0.8 are accurately measured and carefully analyzed. A novel mathematical model is proposed to express the aerodynamic characteristics of the parachutes. The obtained results show that the drag coefficient of the parachutes varies in a small range of 0.525~0.575 at Mach 0.4 and 0.8 as the angle of attack increases from 0 to 25 degrees. The simulated results of the propose model have a well agreement with the wind tunnel experimental data. The investigations in the present paper have a good significant to the engineering development of the parachutes in Mars probe decelerator system.