An oblique hypervelocity impact model characterizing secondary impact ejecta

Author

Dominik Jerzy Depczyk

Abstract

"The debris generated by a spacecraft under various circumstances within the earth's orbital environment has become a major issue for the space faring community in recent decades because of its potentially fatal effects on all spacecraft and its steady pollution of this environment. Schonberg and Yang [2] developed an empirical model under contract for the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center for the purpose of studying secondary ejecta born in high-speed impacts with aerospace structural surfaces and its resultant interactions with the exposed subsystems of an orbiting spacecraft. The original model was based on fundamental conservation principles and used experimental observations from impact tests of aluminum dual-wall structures to describe several unknowns.

This study is an optimization of the existing empirical model by reducing its dependence on one of three user-defined parameters. These parameters serve to define various material, velocity, and energy distributions within the observationally based set of equations. The optimization involved substituting a parameter that defines distribution of wall material among two of the three resulting debris clouds formed in an impact, with an empirically determined equation. This equation is based on an analysis of plots generated in simulations performed using an SPH hydrocode. Secondly, several programming changes were made to accelerate future studies. These alterations allow the user to run an unlimited number of impact scenarios in simultaneous fashion and perform an automated selection of the remaining user-defined parameters. Following these changes and several noted corrections, the verification process brought out inconsistencies in the SPH data as well as incorrect modeling of debris cloud velocities"-- Abstract, p. ii

Advisor(s)

Schonberg, William P.

Committee Member(s)

Drallmeier, J. A.
Eversman, Walter

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

Spring 2001

Pagination

viii, 72 pages, CD-ROM

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 70-71)

Rights

© 2001 Dominik Jerzy Depczyk, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 7931

Print OCLC #

47778931

Electronic OCLC #

1484833155

Recommended Citation

Depczyk, Dominik Jerzy, "An oblique hypervelocity impact model characterizing secondary impact ejecta" (2001). Masters Theses. 2062.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/2062