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Experimental Study on Hypervelocity Impact Characteristics of New Types of Gong-Hou Shield

Gong, Zizheng 1, Hou, Mingqiang 1, Xu, Kunbo 1, Zheng, Jiandong 1, Niu, Jinchao 1, Cao, Yan1
Affiliation data not available1

Document details

Publishing year2013 PublisherESA Publishing typeConference Name of conference6th European Conference on Space Debris
Pagesn/a Volume
6
Issue
1
Editors
L. Ouwehand

Abstract

Two new types of Gong-Hou shield, Al/Mg shield and Ti/Al/Mg/nylon shield, were studied by using two-stage light gas gun, to verify Gong-Hou shield had larger protection capacity than Whipple shield in defeating micro-meteoroid and orbital debris (MM/OD). Three impact velocities (3.5 km/s, 4.5 km/s, and 6.5 km/s) were chosen for Al/Mg shield. For Ti/Al/Mg/nylon shield, experiments were conducted at 4.5 km/s and 6.5 km/s. Petal-like perforations presented in both Al/Mg bumper and Ti/Al/Mg/nylon bumper. The normalized perforation diameters for Al/Mg shield and Ti/Al/Mg/nylon shield were approximately 1.3 to 2.1 times of those for Whipple shield. There were only 20-25 caters with diameter larger than 2 mm in Gong-Hou shield at 4.5 km/s, while more than 60 presented in Whipple shield. The critical diameters of aluminum spherical projectiles for Al/Mg shield were 5.0 mm, 5.5 mm, and 6.0 mm at impact velocities of 3.5 km/s, 4.5 km/s, and 6.5 km/s, respectively. Those for Ti/Al/Mg/nylon shield were 4.8 mm at 4.5 km/s and 5.9 mm at 6.5 km/s. However, the maximum diameters of projectiles that Whipple shield could defeat were only 2.7 mm, 3.3 mm and 4.5 mm at 3.5 km/s, 4.5 km/s and 6.5 km/s, respectively. The maximum performance increase was 85.2%, and the minimum was 31.1%.

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