Characteristic Parameters of Debris Cloud Produced by HypervelocityImpact of Conical Projectiles on Spacecraft Shield

Space debris of different shapes, when impacting spacecraft protection structures, may produce debris clouds which in turn cause secondary damage on the spacecraft.Therefore, it is of great necessity to investigate the characteristics of debris clouds formed from hypervelocity impact by space debris of diverse shapes.We selected 2 aerospace materials, Al 2017-T4 and Al 2A12, respectively as the impacting projectile and the spacecraft shield material, and performed numerical simulations utilizing the smoothened particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique with the nonlinear dynamic analysis software AUTODYN-2D.We investigated numerically the characteristics of debris clouds, which were generated by the hypervelocity impact of conical projectiles with the same mass and striking velocity but different length-radius ratios normally on the single protective plate in the conical bottom and tip directions.The results show that the axial velocity of the tip particle, the radial diameter and the axial length of debris clouds, and the diameter of the perforation hole are affected by the length-radius ratio and the impact direction of conical projectiles, and their changing regularities are established in the pres