For ram-air wings such as paragliders, this is a key challenge. Their behaviour is strongly coupled: the airflow deforms the structure, and the deformation changes the airflow.
While aerodynamic conditions can be scaled in a wind tunnel, reproducing the structural behaviour of textiles, seams, line tensions and inflated cells is far more difficult. As a result, high-quality validation data for flexible wings remains scarce in the scientific literature.
At FAIR aero, we take simulation validation very seriously.
This summer, we carried out an extensive experimental campaign on paragliders, combining LiDAR, load cells, 5-hole probes, high-precision GPS and other onboard measurements to capture in-flight behaviour at full scale.
The dataset will take time to process, but the first results are already very encouraging.
This update was also shared on the FAIR aero LinkedIn page.
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