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Article

Research on Analysis and Predictive Modeling of the Frontal Flow Field During Parachutist High-Speed Descent

1
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
2
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Aerospace 2026, 13(3), 211; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace13030211 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 29 December 2025 / Revised: 23 February 2026 / Accepted: 23 February 2026 / Published: 26 February 2026
(This article belongs to the Section Aeronautics)

Abstract

In high-speed parachuting, complex turbulent phenomena (i.e., deadly vortices) may cause problems such as parachute inflation delay or even deployment failure. To address these issues, this study develops a high-precision numerical simulation dummy model in which adaptive mesh generation techniques, combined with Euler–Lagrange bidirectional coupling based on a large eddy simulation, are employed to model the multiphase flow field during parachute descent. The key parameters are adjusted, and the numerical model is refined based on wind tunnel experiments and User-Defined Functions. The bidirectional validation of the experimental and simulated data reveals the mechanism of turbulent flow formation and its evolutionary patterns around the parachutist–parachute system for different lateral and descent velocities during the high-speed descent phase. A prediction model based on a multi-information fusion neural network algorithm is further established to address the challenge in special parachuting scenarios whereby vortices in the flow field around the parachutist prevent the parachute from opening. The model integrates the Haar wavelet to extract global low-frequency features that characterize the overall structure and trends, an energy valley optimization algorithm, a convolutional neural network, a bidirectional long short-term memory network, and a self-attention mechanism to achieve one-second-ahead turbulence prediction. With nine physical quantities as inputs and descent velocity as the output indicator, the model has a Root Mean Square Error of 0.085, a Mean Absolute Error of 0.051, and a Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 0.0021.
Keywords: CFD; airdrop; neural network; wind tunnel experiment; vortex analysis CFD; airdrop; neural network; wind tunnel experiment; vortex analysis

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Chen, Z.; Xiang, X.; Ma, S.; Wu, Z.; Yang, J.; Li, R.; Li, Y.; Xi, Z. Research on Analysis and Predictive Modeling of the Frontal Flow Field During Parachutist High-Speed Descent. Aerospace 2026, 13, 211. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace13030211

AMA Style

Chen Z, Xiang X, Ma S, Wu Z, Yang J, Li R, Li Y, Xi Z. Research on Analysis and Predictive Modeling of the Frontal Flow Field During Parachutist High-Speed Descent. Aerospace. 2026; 13(3):211. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace13030211

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chen, Zimo, Xuesong Xiang, Siyi Ma, Zhongda Wu, Jiawen Yang, Renfu Li, Yichao Li, and Zhaojun Xi. 2026. "Research on Analysis and Predictive Modeling of the Frontal Flow Field During Parachutist High-Speed Descent" Aerospace 13, no. 3: 211. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace13030211

APA Style

Chen, Z., Xiang, X., Ma, S., Wu, Z., Yang, J., Li, R., Li, Y., & Xi, Z. (2026). Research on Analysis and Predictive Modeling of the Frontal Flow Field During Parachutist High-Speed Descent. Aerospace, 13(3), 211. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace13030211

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