Hypervelocity Impact Characteristic Investigation Of Spacecraft Space Debris Shield Configuration

With the unceasing development of space activity, the total number of space debris is ever increasing, which greatly threatens an orbiting space vehicle. The prominence characteristic of space debris impacting spacecraft is hypervelocity impact phenomena. For the millimeter size space debris, the Whipple shield is an effective shield configuration. The hypervelocity impact characteristic of spacecraft by space debris is the important basic of shield structure design and risk evaluation of spacecraft in space debris environment. In this dissertation, in order to systematically study the hypervelocity impact damage of typical spacecraft space debris shield configuration made of aluminum alloy, a two-stage light gas gun was used to launch sphere projectile. The experiment data and investigation results can provide criterions and references for engineering design of spacecraft shield configuration.The hypervelocity impact characteristics of thin plate and medium thickness plate are the important basic for design of space debris shield structure. By investigating the impact crater characteristic of 5A06 aluminum alloy medium thickness plate and impact perforation characteristic of 2A12 aluminum alloy thin plate, ballistic limit curve of aluminum alloy single wall and the equations for forecasting impact characteristic were obtained. The results indicated that projectile liquefied cause the decline of penetrate ability in some impact velocity range. The thickness of target plate has prominence effect on perforation size as projectile diameter and impact velocity. When hypervelocity projectiles oblique impact on thin targets, there exists a critical incident angle, and in the condition of impact angle of projectile smaller than the critical incident angle, projectiles leap away from the targets partially or entirely. Comparing the overseas equations, the new equations can apply to domestic aluminum alloy.Dual-wall configuration is typical spacecraft space debris shield structure. By hypervelocity impact experiment, the crater distributing in rear wall when normal impact and oblique impact were investigated. Ballistic limit curve of aluminum alloy dual-wall configuration and the equations for forecasting crater...