Fragment Impact Debris Morphology as a Function of Impact Conditions

Abstract 1. Introduction Debris clouds are formed whenever projectiles impact target plates above a critical velocity. For plate impacts at low velocities, a projectile can perforate the plate without fragmenting into pieces. Much work has been done both experimentally and computationally looking at the low velocity ballistic limit which is a complex function of the spall strength of the materials and relative projectile and plate sizes. As the velocity increases and the projectile experiences larger tensile stresses, the projectile will fragment and form a debris cloud. The work of Piekutowski [1,2] is one of hundreds of publications that describe debris clouds from hypervelocity impacts. The vast majority of these papers discuss debris clouds from spherical projectiles impacting flat plates, though some work has been done on non-spherical projectiles. DeVuyst [3] evaluated the effects of cube orientation on a single plate ballistic limit for Al2024. Silnikov [4] investigated debris cloud formation and considered cube orientation but the study was entirely computational. Miller [5] conducted hypervelocity impact experiments and limited simulations of short rods and disks and some simulations, but there are no comprehensive investigations of cube orientations and its effect on debris cloud morphology.