Problematic issues of assessing the strength of axisymmetric parachute systems by conducting breakdown tests in flight experiments

The article deals with problematic issues of assessing the strength of axisymmetric parachute systems in flight tests. One of the main tasks in preparing for flight tests is the choice of conditions for carrying out an experiment. Variants of parachute system breakdown tests are considered. Loads occurring in parachute system inflation are analyzed. The specific character and peculiarities of parachute damages and failures are presented in the article. The problem of parachute system destruction under breaking loads considerably smaller than the parachute load bearing capacity is posed. We propose to use methods of experimental optimization and stochastic approximation to reduce the number of experiments. The conclusion is drawn on possible ways of solving the problem of assessing the breaking load and load bearing capacity obtained in assessing the strength of parachute systems in a flight experiment.