On The Effect of Projectile Material on Damage Induced to Single and Multi-Plate Target

Abstract Introduction Specific shielding has been developed for protection of space structures against debris hypervelocity impacts. Common solutions are generally derived from a Whipple Shield [1] configuration in which the front plate shatters the projectile and the following ones catch the fragments for which aluminum projectiles are generally considered for the validation of such solution [2,3]. Currently, the number of non-aluminum space debris increases due to the development of new materials in space structure like reinforced composite for example [4]. The behavior of such resin-based impactor material under Hypervelocity Impact (HVI) should differ from that of aluminum, yet, it has not been extensively studied in the literature. Most of available studies on HVI of polymeric material investigate the response of composite target with aluminum projectile. This study proposes to observe and analyze the response of multi-plates aluminum target impacted by a polyoxymethylene (POM, also known as acetal) projectile. An impact reference configuration is defined allowing considering similar mass of aluminum and polyacetal sphere. Analysis of the high-speed camera images, target shape and impact generated overpressure are proposed in the following paragraphs.