Parachutes and airfoils

[Tsynique]

I have defined parachutes for a vessel using the CreateAirfoil function but I am not really sure I got the three parameters right.
For chord length I used the diameter of a parachute, for area I used the surface area of the parachute and for aspect ratio I used 1 because it's round.
Is that correct?

Thanks!

 

[Urwumpe]

Why don't you use a variable drag element for defining the behavior of the Parachute?

I prefer it as I can keep the capsule aerodynamics that way, so until the parachute is fully deployed, the capsule flies still accurate, with the parachute slowly gaining influence.

Also variable drag elements are simpler to calculate: The drag factor is simply Area multiplied by drag coefficient (usually about 2.4)

 

[computerex]

For a domed parachute, the drag coefficient should be 1.5. A word of advice, don't use airfoils/thrusters to simulate parachutes, use Orbiter's AddForce function.