Theses and Dissertations
Issuing Body
Mississippi State University
Advisor
Lacy, Thomas E.
Committee Member
Pittman, Charles U., Jr.
Committee Member
Olsen, Gregory D.
Committee Member
Kundu, Santanu
Date of Degree
12-8-2017
Document Type
Graduate Thesis - Open Access
Major
Aerospace Engineering
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.)
College
James Worth Bagley College of Engineering
Department
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
With the growing threat of orbital debris impacts to space structures, the development of space shielding concepts has been a critical research topic. In this study, numerical simulations of the hypervelocity impact response of stacked aluminum 6061-T6 sheets were performed to assess the effects of layering on penetration resistance. This work was initially motivated by set of experimental tests where a stack of four aluminum sheets of equal thickness was observed to have a higher hypervelocity ballistic resistance than a monolithic aluminum sheet with the same total thickness. A set of smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations predicted a 40% increase in the ballistic limit for a 6-layer target compared to a monolithic sheet. In addition, the effect of variable sheet thickness and sheet ordering on the impact resistance was investigated, while still maintaining a constant overall thickness. A set of thin layers in front of a thick layer generally lead to a higher predicted ballistic limit than the inverse configuration. This work demonstrates an increase in the performance of advanced space shielding structures associated with multi-layering. This suggests that it may be possible to dramatically improve the performance of such structures by tailoring the material properties, interfaces, and layering concepts.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19486
Recommended Citation
Marroquin Salvador, Michael Deivi, "Hypervelocity Impact of Spherical Aluminum 2017-T4 Projectiles on Aluminum 6061-T6 Multi-Layered Sheets" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 2537.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/2537