Effects of suspension line on flow field around a supersonic parachute

Abstract Numerical simulations based on a simple “immersed boundary technique” are performed to investigate the effects of suspension lines on the flow field around a three-dimensional rigid supersonic parachute mode consisting of a capsule and a canopy. The computational results show that the flow field has an unsteady pulsating characteristic. Furthermore, it is shown that the suspension lines prompt the formation of shock waves around them, which subsequently interact with the wake from the capsule and the canopy shock system. A good qualitative agreement is observed between the numerical results and experimental data.