THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DAMAGE CAUSED BY IMPACT ON THE WHIPPLE SHIELD OF LOW-DENSITY BRITTLE MICRO-METEOROID

In this paper, numerical impact experiments on spacecraft typical Whipple shield with silicate pro-jectile as low-density brittle micro-meteoroids are carried out to obtain a low-density brittle micro-meteoroids' damage mode and damage law. It is shown that when the projectile impact velocity is between 1.1 km/s and 1.4 km/s, the front plate injury model changes from the petal-type cracking into the hole, when the speed is 1.4 km/s the cracks appear on the drum header. With the increase of the projectile speed, flakes occur on the back plate, and the petal-type crack is formed. When the projectile impact speed is 1.95 km/s, the back plate cracks into the hole, leading to the destruction of protective structures.