Modeling on propagation of shock waves induced by hypervelocity impact (HVI) with application to evaluation of HVI damage

A hypervelocity impact (HVI) of an aluminium sphere into an aluminium plate with a speed around 4000 m/s is numerically modeled and experimentally verified. Ubiquitous in outer space and significantly different from low velocity impact (LVI), HVI features transient, localized, and extreme material deformation in an adiabatic process, under which the induced shock waves present unique yet complex features. To numerically study this normal HVI phenomenon, a dedicated hybrid modeling combining the three-dimensional smooth-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) with the finite element analysis was developed, to gain an insight into characteristics of HVI-induced shock wave propagation. The effectiveness and accuracy of the modeling and simulation was demonstrated through quantitative coincidence in results between simulation and HVI experiment. Shock wave signal features on both time and frequency domain are analyzed intensively based on the theoretical model of HVI. Upon understanding the characteristics of HVI-induced shock waves, an acoustic emission (AE) based characterization strategy, targeting HVI-committed damage, was subsequently established using an enhanced delay-and-sum-based diagnostic imaging algorithm, and this strategy was validated by locating orbital debris-induced penetration in space structures, showing precise identification results.