Fatimah Ahmed Alkhunaizi
Saad National School, Khobar, Eastern Province, SAUDI ARABIA
The purpose of this project is to make skydiving safer and decrease the significant number of fatalities caused by its accidents, using a modified helium inflated skydiving suit. This is based on the hypothesis that if the skydiving suit was inflated with helium, the skydiver`s terminal velocity will decrease, which results in preventing fatal injuries when colliding with ground upon failure of parachute.
At an altitude of 600 m, a skydiver`s parachute should be deployed, which decreases acceleration. If acceleration is not decreased at this level, it will be considered as a parachute failure situation and the skydiving suit will inflate with helium. The acceleration of the skydiver is measured using an accelerometer sensor and a programmable logic controller (PLC).
The regular skydiving suit was padded with large, pressed nylon bags. An aluminum cylinder containing a large amount of compressed helium was attached to the back of the suit. Plastic tubes embedded in the suit connect the cylinder with the bags. A small PLC and an accelerometer were also placed in a compartment at the back of the suit.
Calculations were done to determine terminal velocity and force of impact with ground (with and without the helium inflated suit).
Using the developed suit, the surface area of the skydiver will double, however the total weight will only increase by 0.5 kg. This results in increased drag force and decreased terminal velocity for the skydiver. Therefore, the force of impact with ground will decrease by 27 Newtons. This results in reducing fatal accidents and thus supporting project hypothesis.