Design of the Aerial Deceleration Phase of an Aerostat Considering the Deployment Scale

Traditional aerostat deployment systems within the Earth’s atmosphere face various limitations, such as high risk and lengthy deployment times. In contrast, rapid-deployment aerostat systems have the advantage of high efficiency and flexibility. To improve the deceleration and stability performance, a dynamic model of the parachute and dynamic and thermodynamic models of the aerostat are established in this work. The impact of different parachute radii, rise–radius ratios (hp/Rp), and filling-time coefficients during the deceleration and inflation process is investigated in detail. Additionally, the comparative analysis of different aerostats is discussed. The results show that the radius and hp/Rp of the parachute mainly affect its deceleration ability, while the filling-time coefficient affects the dynamic load. For radii of balloons exceeding 8 m, increasing the parachute radius cannot enable deployment above 10,000 m. As the radius of the balloon increases, a larger filling-time coefficient is required. A parachute with hp/Rp = 0.8 is recommended for a balloon with a radius below 6.5 m, and hp/Rp = 0.6 is recommended for a radius over 6.5 m. These findings provide valuable references for rapid-deployment aerostat systems.