Investigation into damage of Al-foam stuffed whipple shield under hypervelocity projectiles impact

In order to study the hypervelocity impact of space debris on spacecraft through hypervelocity impact on Al-foam stuffed Whipple shield structure, a two-stage light gas gun was used to launch 2017-T4 aluminum alloy sphere projectiles. The projectile diameters ranged from 6.35mm to 7mm and impact velocities ranged from 3.7km/s to 4.5km/s. Firstly, the advanced method of Al-foam stuffed Whipple shield resisting hypervelocity impacts from space debris was investigated, and the effect of amount and thickness of wall on shield performance was discussed. The results indicated that the damaged area and the crack length on the second wall can be used to evaluate the protection ability of Al-foam stuffed Whipple shield. The main factors affecting the protection ability of Al-foam stuffed Whipple shield from hypervelocity impact are thickness of bumper, protection spacing, relative density of Al-foam, the arrangements of Al-foam.