Experimental Research on Hyperivelocity Impact of Middle and Low Density Material Flyers on Aluminium Shield Structure.

The average velocity of space debris impacting on on-orbit spacecrafts is 10 km/s, and 90% of them in low earth orbit are the middle and low density materials. The experiments of Mylar foil and Al flyer impacting on Al shield structure at 14 km/s and about 9 km/s, respectively, are done by electric gun and magnetic driving technology, and the damage results of Mylar foil and Al flyer impacting on shield structure are obtained. The results show that the debris cloud created by Al flyer impacting on Al shielding slab at about 9km/s contains fluid state and even gas state, and the debris cloud created by Mylar foil impacting on Al shielding material at 14km/s is solid state. For the Mylar foil flyer, the shielding effect of double shield structure is better than that of the single layer structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]