Design and Feasibility of ExoMars Supersonic Parachute Scirocco Test.

A feasibility study of ExoMars parachute supersonic experiment to be possibly performed in the Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali Plasma Wind-Tunnel Scirocco facility has been analyzed. To verify the test feasibility, some test conditions in terms of facility reservoir conditions have been simulated by means of computational fluid dynamics computations of a modified nozzle, and verified with respect to testing requirements mainly in terms of test article size, Mach number, and dynamic pressure. The proper functioning of the wind tunnel has also been checked. In particular, the facility makes available a 80-MW power vacuum system that guarantees inside the test chamber the low-pressure conditions of the Mars atmosphere into which the parachute is foreseen to be opened. The possibility to introduce an air heater and/or burner would assure also the matching of temperature requirement, and reduce the request of mass flow rate. Computational fluid dynamics simulations of the complete facility configuration (nozzle, test chamber, diffuser) with the test article inside have verified the right functioning of the diffuser (occurrence of tunnel blockage) and the effects of the interaction between the bow shock wave in front of the capsule and the flow exiting from the nozzle, and the pressure that establishes inside the test chamber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]