Hypervelocity Impact Fragmentation

Hypervelocity impacts are impacts that occur at velocities over 5 km/s. Impact behaviors of materials at such velocities from a fundamental prognostic physics point of view are of immediate interest for missile intercept signature assessments. In final application we are interested in “kill assessment” – being able to determine whether or not a missile intercept was successfully performed, and to what degree the intercept mission objectives were met, by examining the debris generated after impact. The kill assessment signature problem reduces to the following: what information about the target and its disposition can be gleaned using the nature of the debris cloud (including plasma, gas, liquid and solid components) that will be generated after a hypervelocity impact by the interceptor on an unknown target?

 

 Long-Range Objectives

· The development of theoretical and numerical estimates of the fragment size distribution during hypervelocity impact on both ductile and brittle structures.

· Models for the partitioning of energy between kinetic energy, fracture energy, plastic/shock dissipation and thermal energy as a result of hypervelocity impact involving fragmentation.

Average fragment size as a function of strain rate

Modeling the Hypervelocity Fragmentation Process

CRG