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Investigation of aluminium Whipple Shield response to hypervelocity impacts close to ballistic limit between 2.5 and 5 km/s.
- Source :
-
Acta Astronautica . Jun2024, Vol. 219, p41-47. 7p. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- For impact velocities larger than a threshold velocity of 3 km/s, aluminium Whipple Shields present an enhanced protection capability with respect to monolithic protections with the same areal density. In particular, in the range between 3 and 7 km/s the projectile partially fragments and melts after impacting the bumper; modelling this transition might be complex due to the high number of parameters affecting the collision. In particular, limited data is available in literature with a systematic evaluation of such parameters. In this context, a campaign of 22 experiments was performed to assess the response of aluminium Whipple Shields to normal impacts of aluminium projectiles in the transition range up to 5 km/s. In the tests, the projectile diameter was fixed at 2.9 mm and the bumper thickness and impact velocity were systematically varied respectively at 1, 1.5, and 2 mm and between 2.6 and 5 km/s. Collected data included high-velocity videos of the debris cloud generated by the impacts at both low resolution (for all shots) and high resolution (for 19 out of 22 tests); in addition, for 10 experiments high-resolution images of both the bumper and the wall were acquired after the tests. In this paper, the experimental campaign is described and the main collected results are presented; in particular, the influence of the different impact parameters is discussed. Experimental results are finally compared with numerical simulations conducted with a smoothed particle hydrodynamics method available in IMPETUS Solver. • 22 impact experiments were performed on Aluminium Whipple Shields. • The projectile diameter was fixed at 2.9 mm for all tests. • Bumper thickness and impact velocity varied in the ranges 1–2 mm and 2.6–5 km/s. • The influence of the different impact parameters is discussed. • Experimental results are compared with numerical SPH simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *ALUMINUM
*IMPACT (Mechanics)
*SPACE debris
*PROJECTILES
*VELOCITY
*HYPERVELOCITY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00945765
- Volume :
- 219
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Acta Astronautica
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177316865
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.03.009