Protection properties of stuffed corrugated sandwich structures under hypervelocity impact: Numerical simulation

Abstract

The stuffed corrugated sandwich structure was proposed for the application in the protection of the spacecraft against orbital debris. In order to investigate the protection properties of the stuffed corrugated sandwich structure under hypervelocity impact, numerical simulations were carried out to analyze the impact characteristics. The hypervelocity impact process was presented and the properties such as shock waves propagation, energy absorption, and expansion of the debris cloud were discussed; corresponding properties of mass equal Whipple structure under impact were analyzed for comparison. The results illustrate the protection mechanism of the stuffed corrugated sandwich subject to hypervelocity impact and show that it has superior protection performance to monolithic plate, which prove that the stuffed corrugated sandwich structure has potentially broad application prospect in the field of spacecraft protection against the orbital debris. The research can provide reference for the design of protection shield of the spacecraft.

Keywords

Stuffed corrugated sandwich structure hypervelocity impact protection properties energy absorption numerical simulation

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