The Airfoil Optimization Design of a Large Paraglider

The increase in weight of airdropped items imposes greater demands on the area of the paraglider. The aerodynamic performance of a paraglider is primarily determined by the aerodynamic characteristics of its airfoil. Therefore, selecting an appropriate airfoil design and optimizing its aerodynamic performance is crucial for achieving desired flight characteristics and efficiency in precision airdrops. In this paper, the Clark Y airfoil is initially chosen as the basic airfoil for the design of a large paraglider due to its ease of production. Subsequently, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the discrete adjoint optimization method, the Clark Y airfoil is further optimized. Through this optimization process, the aerodynamic efficiency of the Clark Y airfoil has been improved by over 10%, resulting in an increased glider ratio that meets the design requirements of the large paraglider. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the discrete adjoint method as an efficient optimization approach for designing airfoils for large paraglider. Furthermore, this method has successfully led to the development of an optimized airfoil based on the Clark Y airfoil, specifically tailored for large paraglider.