CFD Analysis of Drag Coefficient of a Parachute in a Steady and Turbulent Condition in Various Reynolds Numbers Available to Purchase

Study of parachutes is very important in aerospace industry. In this research, the effect of various Reynolds numbers on a parachute with a vent and without a vent at the top on drag coefficient in a steady and turbulent condition is studied. After a complete research on an efficient grid study, the drag coefficients are calculated numerically. The Reynolds number is varied from 78000 to 3900000 (1 m/s to 50 m/s). It is found that, for a parachute without a vent at the top, as the Reynolds number is increased from 78000 to 800000, the drag coefficient is decreased from about 2.5 to 1.4, and then as the Reynolds number is increased to 1500000, the drag coefficient increased to about 1.62 and it stayed constant for higher Reynolds number up to 3900000. As the vent ratio of the parachute is increased from zero to 5 percent of the parachute inlet diameter, the drag coefficient increased and for further increase of the vent ratio diameter, the drag coefficient decreased, but the general variation of drag coefficient was the same as of same parachute with no vent.