Aerodynamic framework for parachute deployment from aerial vehicle
View Patent ↗A computer-implemented method for determining landing conditions of an aerial vehicle includes receiving an input model representing the aerial vehicle with an internally-stored parachute and pre-determined environmental conditions, initiating a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for flight of the aerial vehicle in the pre-determined environmental conditions, receiving, from a simulation database, pre-computed aerodynamic data, including aerodynamic quantities for representing deployment of the internally-stored parachute and descent of the aerial vehicle, and coupling one or more trajectory equations with the pre-computed aerodynamic data and structural quantities of the aerial vehicle to simulate descent and landing of the aerial vehicle in the pre-determined environmental conditions via a deployed parachute.
1 . A computer-implemented method for determining landing conditions of an aerial vehicle, the computer-implemented method comprising the steps of:
receiving an input model representing the aerial vehicle with an internally-stored parachute and pre-determined environmental conditions;
initiating a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for flight of the aerial vehicle in the pre-determined environmental conditions;
receiving, from a simulation database, pre-computed aerodynamic data, including aerodynamic quantities for representing deployment of the internally-stored parachute and descent of the aerial vehicle; and
coupling one or more trajectory equations with the pre-computed aerodynamic data and structural quantities of the aerial vehicle to simulate descent and landing of the aerial vehicle in the pre-determined environmental conditions via a deployed parachute.
2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
triggering deployment of the internally-stored parachute from within a body of the aerial vehicle during the simulation;
modeling the deployed parachute as a moving canopy boundary condition in the pre-determined environmental conditions to determine behavior of the deployed parachute;
extracting simulation data from the simulated descent and landing of the aerial vehicle to be utilized in a design of a physical aerial vehicle with an internally-stored parachute; and
constructing the simulation database from the extracted aerodynamic data, the simulation database including extracted simulation data for a plurality of aerial vehicles in one or more environmental conditions.
3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the extracted simulation data is selected from the group consisting of maximum velocity during descent, time to ground after deployment, velocity at ground level, distortion of parachute canopy, acceleration of aerial vehicle during deployment, applied forces during deployment and descent, and any combination thereof.
4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein modeling the deployed parachute as a moving canopy boundary condition further comprises simulating oscillatory breathing of the deployed parachute during descent of the aerial vehicle.
5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
defining a plurality of overlapping meshes as an overset grid for performing the CFD simulation of the aerial vehicle and the deployed parachute.
6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the overset grid includes an aerial vehicle mesh, a parachute canopy mesh, and a parachute hole mesh overlaid on a background mesh.
7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the CFD simulation is performed using a parallel batch system (PBS) protocol.
8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
emulating failure of a propulsion system of the aerial vehicle during flight, wherein the failure of the propulsion system triggers the deployment of the internally-stored parachute.
9 . A system for generating landing condition data for an aerial vehicle, the system comprising:
an aerial vehicle simulation engine operable to construct an aerial vehicle landing simulation database from input models, user-provided trajectory equations, and environmental conditions, the aerial vehicle simulation engine including:
a computational fluid dynamics solver operable to simulate flight and descent of an aerial vehicle with an internally-stored parachute;
a simulation data extraction module operable to extract simulation data from the computational fluid dynamics and user-provided trajectory equation solvers related to descent and landing via the internally-stored parachute; and
a database construction module operable to construct the aerial vehicle landing simulation database using the extracted simulation data for a plurality of input models, a plurality of environmental conditions, or a combination thereof.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the computational fluid dynamics solver comprises:
a propulsion failure and parachute deployment module operable to emulate failure of a propulsion system of the aerial vehicle during flight and to trigger deployment of the internally-stored parachute during or after failure of the propulsion system.
11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the computational fluid dynamics solver comprises:
a moving boundary condition module operable to simulate a canopy of a deployed parachute as a moving boundary condition within the computational fluid dynamics solver.
12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the aerial vehicle simulation engine further comprises:
an overset grid generation module operable to construct an overset grid for the computational fluid dynamics solver, the overset grid including an aerial vehicle mesh, a parachute canopy mesh, and a parachute hole mesh overlapping on a background mesh.
13 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising a database appending module operable to receive further extracted simulation data from the aerial vehicle simulation engine and append the further extracted simulation data to a constructed aerial vehicle landing simulation database.
14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the aerial vehicle landing simulation database constructed by the aerial vehicle simulation engine is operable to receive proposed aerial vehicle parameters, proposed parachute parameters, proposed environmental conditions, or a combination thereof to provide aerodynamic parameters to the computational fluid dynamics solver, including aerodynamic quantities for representing deployment of the internally-stored parachute and descent of the aerial vehicle.
15 . A computer-implemented method for generating a simulation database of landing conditions for one or more aerial vehicles, the computer-implemented method comprising the steps of:
receiving an input model representing the one or more aerial vehicles with an internally-stored parachute;
simulating flight of the one or more aerial vehicles via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software in a plurality of environmental conditions, the flight including a failure of a propulsion system of the one or more aerial vehicles;
simulating deployment of the internally-stored parachute and landing of the one or more aerial vehicles in the plurality of environmental conditions;
extracting simulation data for each of the one or more aerial vehicles in the plurality of environmental conditions, the simulation data including aerodynamic quantities for representing deployment of the internally-stored parachute and descent of the aerial vehicle; and
constructing a database of simulation data including the one or more aerial vehicles in each environmental condition of the plurality of environmental conditions.
16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
designing a landing system of a physical aerial vehicle utilizing the simulation database of simulation data and proposed environmental conditions with the computational fluid dynamics software.
17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
receiving an input model representing a further aerial vehicle with an internally-stored parachute of a different design;
simulating flight of the one or more aerial vehicles via CFD software in the plurality of environmental conditions, the flight including the failure of a propulsion system of the one or more aerial vehicles;
simulating deployment of the internally-stored parachute and landing of the one or more aerial vehicles in the plurality of environmental conditions;
extracting simulation data for each of the one or more aerial vehicles in the plurality of environmental conditions; and
appending the extracted simulation data to the database to increase one or more tested parameters to be included in the database of simulation data.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the extracted simulation data is selected from the group consisting of maximum velocity during descent, time to ground after deployment, velocity at ground level, distortion of parachute canopy, acceleration of aerial vehicle during deployment, applied forces during deployment and descent, and any combination thereof.
19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
defining a plurality of overlapping meshes as an overset grid for simulating flight of the one or more aerial vehicles and the deployed parachute.
20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the deployed parachute is modeled as a moving canopy boundary condition operable to simulate oscillatory breathing of the deployed parachute during descent of the aerial vehicle.