Ballistic limit evaluation of advanced shielding using numerical simulations

✍ Scribed by Colin J. Hayhurst; Iain H.G. Livingstone; Richard A. Clegg; Roberto Destefanis; Moreno Faraud

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 650 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0734-743X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0734-743x(01)00100-2

✦ Synopsis

The advanced shielding concept employed for the Columbus module of the International Space Station consists of an aluminum bumper and an intermediate shield of Nextel and Kevlar-epoxy. Until recently, the lack of adequate material models for the Nextel cloth and Kevlar-epoxy has precluded the practical usage of hydrocodes in evaluating the response of these shields to hypervelocity impact threats. Recently hydrocode material models for these materials have been proposed [1,2] and the further development and completion of this model development is reported in this paper. The resulting models, now implemented in AUTODYN-2D and AUTODYN-3D, enables the coupling of orthotropic constitutive behavior with a non-linear (shock) equation of state. The model has been compared with light gas gun tests for aluminum spheres on the advanced shield at impact velocities between 3.0 and 6.5krn/s [3]. Reasonable correspondence has been obtained at these impact velocities and thus the models have been used to perform preliminary assessment of predicted ballistic limits at velocities from 7 to 1 lkm/s. The predicted ballistic limits are compared with ballistic limit curves derived on the basis that damage is proportional to projectile momentum