Failure evolution in hypervelocity impact of Al spheres onto thin Al plates

Hypervelocity impact (HVI) of Al spheres upon thin Al plates arouses high amplitude shock waves. Along with the wave propagation, the sphere and plate undergo massive failure, breakup and phase changes, and end up with diffusing debris clouds. Combined with the theories of wave interaction and tensile failure, this paper reveals the failure evolution during HVI of Al spheres onto thin Al plates through Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The relation between the failure evolution and the formation process of debris cloud is analyzed. The influence of impact conditions (impact velocity and projectile-diameter-to-plate-thickness ratio) on the failure evolution, the debris cloud formation, and the largest fragment is also discussed. The analysis of the failure evolution and debris cloud formation in this paper can provide new insight for the quantitative study of HVI and space debris protection.