Abstract
This paper aims to study the difference of results in breakup state judgment, debris cloud and fragment characteristic parameter during hypervelocity impact (HVI) on large-scale complex spacecraft structures by various numerical simulation methods. We compared the results of the test of aluminum projectile impact on an aluminum plate with the simulation results of the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH), finite element method (FEM)-smoothed particle Galerkin (SPG) fixed coupling method, node separation method, and finite element method-smooth particle hydrodynamics adaptive coupling method under varying mesh/particle sizes. Then based on the test of the complex simulated satellite under hypervelocity impact of space debris, the most applicable algorithm was selected and used to verify the accuracy of the calculation results. It was found that the finite element method-smooth particle hydrodynamics adaptive coupling method has lower mesh sensitivity in displaying the contour of the debris cloud and calculating its characteristic parameters, making it more suitable for the full-scale numerical simulation of hypervelocity impact. Moreover, this algorithm can simulate the macro breakup state of the full-scale model with complex structure and output debris fragments with clear boundaries and accurate shapes. This study provides numerical simulation method options for the follow-up research on breakup conditions, damage effects, debris clouds, and fragment characteristics of large-scale complex spacecraft.
Highlights
Space debris of any size poses a potential and actual threat to the operating spacecraft and the near-earth space ecology
It is found that the output of fragment characteristic parameters in the scale of 0.0001~0.1 m does not conform to the test law due to the insufficient total amount of output fragments under certain mesh accuracy, there is a unified mathematical relationship between the lines fitted by the simulation and test data, which can be derived from each other
To address the problems in the calculation differences of the breakup, characteristic parameters of debris clouds, and fragments by various numerical simulation methods for hypervelocity impact on the full-scale model, we carried out this study
Summary
Space debris of any size poses a potential and actual threat to the operating spacecraft and the near-earth space ecology. In the low orbit area with the highest debris density, the relative velocity of the spacecraft and orbital debris could exceed 15 km/s. At such a velocity, impact with large as well as 1 cm or even smaller debris could cause serious or even catastrophic damage to the spacecraft [1]. It is necessary to study the hypervelocity impact between space debris and large-scale complex spacecraft. This study is to find appropriate numerical simulation means to present the problem of hypervelocity impact more accurately on full-scale complex structures, and accurately simulate and analyze their breakup, characteristic parameters of debris cloud and debris fragments as well as the dynamic response of materials and structures under hypervelocity impact, and perform test verification. The selected appropriate simulation method can be extended to the calculation of larger-scale hypervelocity impact problems, better-guiding follow-up tests, reducing research costs, and improving research efficiency
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