Influence of Different Air Inlet Configurations of a Paraglider's Open Airfoil Performance

This paper firstly investigates the effects of different classical air inlet configurations on the aerodynamic performance and stability of a paraglider airfoil. Followed by conducting gradient-based aerodynamic shape optimization of the airfoil based on the novel ShrakNose design concept, with the goal of maximizing the internal pressure of the airfoil at low to relatively high angles of attack to cover the flight range, while not increasing the drag or flow separation at the air inlet. Two air inlet configurations are then added to the optimized airfoil, and their effects on the performance are further investigated. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) are solved for the flow field around the closed and open airfoils. canopy is assumed to be smooth, rigid and impermeable. Results arc focused on both of lift and drag coefficients for performance analysis and on the internal pressure coefficient which can be critical for a real flexible wing concerning the risk of collapse.