Use of composite materials in multi-wall structures to prevent perforation by hypervelocity particle impact

Abstract

All earth-orbiting spacecraft are susceptible to impacts by meteoroids and pieces of orbital debris. These impacts occur at extremely high speeds and can damage flight-critical systems, which can in turn lead to catastrophic failure of the spacecraft. The design of a spacecraft for an earth-orbiting mission must take into account the possibility of such impacts and their effects on the spacecraft structure and on all of its exposed subsystem components. This paper represents the results of an experimental investigation in which several different composite materials are tested for their ability to prevent the perforation of the pressure walls in multi-wall systems subjected to hypervelocity projectile impact. The damage in the composite material specimens is also compared to the damage in aluminum specimens of similar geometry and weight caused by hypervelocity projectiles with similar impact energies. The analysis shows that using composite materials in combination with metallic materials in multi-wall structures can increase the protection afforded a spacecraft against perforation by orbital debris particles over that provided by traditional, purely metallic double-wall structures.