Structure Dynamic Analysis of C-9 Parachute Using Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation Thin Shell Element

Abstract

In parachute fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulation, traditional parachute structure discrete methods including classic finite element method and mass-spring-damp method suffers from its large computational cost and deficiency in describing material property. This paper develops a generic shell element based on absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) to model parachute canopy to reduce computation resources and retain membrane strain/stress analyzing capability. We conduct multiple validation cases of ANCF plate and shell element and compare with current literature, in which large deformation configuration and stress distribution have been verified. A 1/4 C-9 parachute canopy inflation process by uniform pressure is simulated by discretizing into 7 ANCF shell and 84 shell element, for which the number of element discretization reduces to 1/10 than classic FEM and computational cost is considerably reduced using band sparse matrix solving technique.