Numerical study on breakup of DebriSat under hypervelocity impact

In this study, the finite element and smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (FE-SPH) adaptive method was used to reproduce experiments on DebriSat under hypervelocity impact. The development and stabilization process of the debris cloud, as well as the damage and response process of the satellite, were reproduced. Compared with the experimental results, although the cumulative number of fragments is relatively small, the trend of the quantity distribution is consistent with the experiment. In addition, the area-to-mass ratio distribution of the fragments shows good agreement with the experimental results and theoretical prediction. The damage, destruction, and failure process of the satellite can be divided into two stages: material and structural response stages. In the material response stage, the satellite is directly destructed by the debris cloud, with worse damage caused by the Domino Effect. The failure modes in this stage include perforation, bending, and bucking of satellite components. The structural response stage is mainly caused by the inertial motion of satellite components, with failure modes primarily involving the connection failure between components and the bending deformation of internal components. In this stage, the overall structure of the satellite is stretched or compressed, resulting in the final disintegration. It was found that the FE-SPH adaptive method is suitable for the full-scale simulation of complex satellites, and the real shape of fragment features can be obtained, providing new ideas for studying the satellite breakup mechanism. The results indicate that the material response primarily causes damage to the satellite components, while the structural response is the main factor of the damage to the overall satellite structure.