Parachute Canopy Segmentation for Rapid Deployment and Shape Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional parachutes used in flight vehicles, such as drones, deploy slowly due to high air permeability, making them unsuitable for situations where rapid altitude loss suppression is necessary.
Innovation Solution
A parachute design featuring an umbrella body with a trapezoidal-shaped impact buffer and shape holder, woven from warp and weft threads, allowing for quick deployment and stable shape maintenance, utilizing a combination of impact buffers and shape holders with varying elasticity and air permeability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the parachute uses high air permeability fabric for easy deployment, then the deployment speed is improved, but the altitude loss increases and deployment time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The parachute canopy is divided into multiple panels with different air permeability characteristics. The central panel has higher air permeability to facilitate rapid initial deployment, while the outer panels have lower air permeability to maintain shape and reduce altitude loss. This segmentation allows the parachute to achieve both fast deployment and controlled descent.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the parachute canopy are assigned different fabric properties. The central portion uses high-permeability fabric for quick inflation, while the peripheral portions use low-permeability fabric for shape stability. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between deployment speed and deployment time by optimizing each region's function.
2Productivity
If the parachute uses high air permeability fabric, then the deployment is easier and faster, but the shape stability after deployment deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The canopy is segmented into central and peripheral panels with distinct air permeability properties. The central high-permeability panel enables rapid deployment, while the peripheral low-permeability panels provide structural stability and maintain the parachute's shape during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The fabric's air permeability is varied locally across the canopy surface. High permeability is concentrated in the central deployment zone, while low permeability is positioned at the edges where shape maintenance is critical. This spatial variation in material property simultaneously achieves fast deployment and stable shape.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables rapid deployment and stable suspension of the parachute, reducing impact and maintaining shape, suitable for rapid altitude loss situations.
Implementation Method 1
an impact buffer that buffers impact when the parachute is deployed
Implementation Method 2
an umbrella edge portion having an air permeability of 'small', an umbrella central portion having an air permeability of 'large'
Data Source
AI summary
A parachute that can be deployed more quickly than before, a safety device provided with the parachute, and a flight vehicle provided with the safety device. An umbrella body of the parachute has a substantially hemispherical shape including a first impact buffer, a second impact buffer, and a shape holder, and includes a vent formed at a top portion and an umbrella edge portion constituting an opening. The first impact buffer and the second impact buffer are formed in a state where each of a plurality of base fabrics is disposed such that a center line L connecting a vertex P and a geometric center position of each of the base fabrics intersects an extending direction of a warp thread and a weft thread of the base fabric.