Publications Details
Development of a massively parallel parachute performance prediction code
Sandia National Laboratories is initiating development of a complete numerical simulation of parachute performance, beginning with parachute deployment and continuing through inflation and steady state descent. The purpose of the parachute performance code is to predict the performance of stockpile weapon parachutes as these parachutes continue to age well beyond their intended service life. A new massively parallel computer will provide unprecedented speed and memory for solving this complex problem, and new software will be written to treat the coupled fluid, structure and trajectory calculations as part of a single code. Verification and validation experiments have been proposed to provide the necessary confidence in the computations.