A THREE-YEAR RESEARCH EFFORT IS PROPOSED FOR DEVELOPING A PREDICTIVE HIGH FIDELITY MULTIDISCIPLINARY COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR PARACHUTE INFLATION DYNAMICS SUPPORTING IT WITH A CORRESPONDING SET OF HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS INTEGRATING THESE TOOLS INTO A COMPREHENSIVE SOFTWARE FOR PARACHUTE ANALYSIS IN THE SUPERSONIC FLOW REGIME AND VALIDATING THIS SOFTWARE. SPECIFICALLY THE ANTICIPATED NUMERICAL CAPABILITY IS EXPECTED TO BE ABLE TO PREDICT THE DRAG OF A PARACHUTE ITS VARIOUS INSTABILITIES SUCH AS FLUTTER AND PULSATION (OR PANTING) WHICH CAN BE ENCOUNTERED IN THE SUPERSONIC REGIME THE INFLUENCE ON ITS PERFORMANCE OF FACTORS SUCH AS ITS POROSITY RELATIVE SIZE OF ITS FOREBODY WITH RESPECT TO ITS DIAMETER ITS DISTANCE FROM THE FOREBODY THE SHAPE OF THE FOREBODY THE LINE LENGTH CANOPY DESIGN AND MACH NUMBER AND THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE AND STRAIN RATE ON THE STRESS FIELD IT CAN EXPERIENCE IN THE SUPERSONIC REGIME. THEREFORE THIS CAPABILITY CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED TO ENABLE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF FUTURE PARACHUTES AND TO SAVE COSTS BY REDUCING TESTING. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH EFFORT WILL ADVANCE THE STATE-OF-THEART OF THE COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGHLY NONLINEAR FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION (FSI) PROBLEMS AS IT WILL ADDRESS CHALLENGING ISSUES SUCH AS THE MULTISCALE MODELING OF SOFT GOODS AND THE HIGH FIDELITY MODELING OF FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTIONS DURING THEIR INFLATION AT HIGH SPEEDS WHILE ACCOUNTING FOR GEOMETRIC AND MATERIAL POROSITY MASSIVE SELF-CONTACT AND A NUMBER OF MATERIAL AND GEOMETRIC NONLINEARITIES. SUCH A COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DOES NOT EXIST TODAY. HOWEVER A SMALL NUMBER OF AVAILABLE CAPABILITIES FOR HIGHLY NONLINEAR FSI PROBLEMS SUCH AS THE AERO SUITE CAN SERVE AS AN EXCELLENT STARTING POINT AND/OR DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM FOR THIS COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH EFFORT ALSO FEATURES KEY INNOVATIONS PERTAINING TO: THE INCORPORATION IN THE COMPUTATIONAL MODEL PROPOSED FOR THE ANALYSIS OF THE INFLATION OF A SUPERSONIC PARACHUTE OF TWO ALTERNATIVE MULTISCALE APPROACHES FOR ACCOUNTING FOR FRICTIONAL LOSSES BETWEEN THE YARNS OF THE SOFT GOODS A TWO-WAY COUPLED THERMOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS TO CAPTURE THE EFFECT OF THE STRAIN RATE ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE MATERIAL AND A STOCHASTIC APPROACH FOR ANALYZING THE INFLUENCE ON PERFORMANCE OF THE INITIAL FOLDED SHAPE OF THE SOFT GOODS; THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFICIENT AND AUTOMATED PROCEDURE FOR TRACKING THE BOUNDARY LAYERS AROUND EVOLVING MATERIAL INTERFACES AND ADAPTING AN EMBEDDING MESH SO THAT THESE LAYERS ARE WELL RESOLVED AT ALL TIMES; AND THE COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT TREATMENT OF GEOMETRIC AND MATERIAL POROSITY. THESE INNOVATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE ABILITY OF THE ANTICIPATED COMPUTATIONAL MODEL TO PERFORM PREDICTIVE SIMULATIONS AND THEREBY TO IMPROVE THE DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF SUPERSONIC PARACHUTES AND SAVE COSTS BY REDUCING TESTING. THE COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS SUPPORTING THE PROPOSED MULTIDISCIPLINARY COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR PARACHUTE INFLATION DYNAMICS WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE FSI SOFTWARE AERO SUITE WHICH IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.