Parachute simulation: integration methods

Abstract

Mass-spring models are frequently employed in parachute simulations due to their simplicity and efficiency. A series of integration methods can be used to solve the dynamic system, however their use presents some difficulties often associated with the stability, accuracy and the computational resources consumption. We compared some of these methods in four different situations: simple pendulum, spring pendulum and two parachute models, and for each system the behavior of the integration methods was different. In the parachute simulations, which are the main objective of this thesis, the Improved Explicit Euler presented the best performance in the first model, although the simulation ended up diverging. For the second model, all of the tested schemes worked.