Honeycomb Parameter-Sensitive Predictive Models for Ballistic Limit of Spacecraft Sandwich Panels Subjected to Hypervelocity Impact at Normal Incidence
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 4
Abstract
Parameters of the honeycomb core, such as cell size and foil thickness, as well as the material of the core, influence the ballistic performance of honeycomb-core sandwich panels (HCSPs) in the case of hypervelocity impact (HVI) by orbital debris. Two predictive models that account for this influence have been developed in this study: a dedicated ballistic limit equation (BLE) and an artificial neural network (ANN) trained to predict the outcomes of HVI on HCSP. BLE fitting and ANN training was conducted using a database composed of entries resulting from physical and numerical experiments. The new ballistic limit equation was based on the Whipple shield BLE, in which the standoff distance between the facesheets was replaced by a function of the honeycomb cell size, foil thickness, and yield strength of the HC material. The BLE demonstrated excellent accuracy in predicting the ballistic limits of HCSP when tested against a new set of simulation data, with the discrepancy ranging from 1.13% to 5.58% only. The ANN was developed using MATLAB’s version 2018b Deep Learning Toolbox framework and was trained utilizing the same HCSP HVI database as that employed for the BLE fitting. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted to optimize the ANN architecture, including such parameters as the activation function, the number of hidden layers, and the number of nodes per layer. The resulting ANN demonstrated a very good predictive accuracy when tested against a set of simulation data not previously used in the training of the network, with the discrepancy ranging from 0.67% to 7.27%. Both of the developed predictive models—the BLE and the ANN—can be recommended for use in the design of spacecraft orbital debris shielding involving honeycomb-core sandwich panels.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through Discovery Grant No. RGPIN-2019-03922 “Orbital Debris Impact Survivability Models for Robotic Satellites.”
References
Adams, D. O., N. J. Webb, C. B. Yarger, A. Hunter, and K. D. Oborn. 2007. Multi-functional sandwich composites for spacecraft applications: An initial assessment. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Akahoshi, Y., R. Nakamura, and M. Tanaka. 2001. “Development of bumper shield using low density materials.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 26 (1–10): 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(01)00069-0.
Aslebagh, R. 2021. “Hypervelocity impact on satellite sandwich structures: Development of a simulation model and investigation of projectile shape and honeycomb core effects.” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, Univ. of Windsor.
Aslebagh, R., and A. Cherniaev. 2022. “Projectile shape effects in hypervelocity impact of honeycomb-core sandwich structures.” J. Aerosp. Eng. 35 (1): 04021112. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0001365.
ASM International. 2002. Atlas of stress-strain curves. 2nd ed. Materials Park, OH: American Society for Metals International.
Bylander, L. A., O. H. Carlström, T. S. R. Christenson, and F. G. Olsson. 2002. “A modular design concept for small satellites.” In Vol. 6 of Smaller satellites: Bigger business? edited by M. Rycroft and N. Crosby. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3008-2_44.
Carriere, R., and A. Cherniaev. 2021. “Hypervelocity impacts on satellite sandwich structures—A review of experimental findings and predictive models.” Appl. Mech. 2 (1): 25–45. https://doi.org/10.3390/applmech2010003.
Cherniaev, A., and I. Telichev. 2017. “Weight-efficiency of conventional shielding systems in protecting unmanned spacecraft from orbital debris.” J. Spacecraft Rockets 54 (1): 75–89. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.A33596.
Christiansen, E. L. 1993. “Design and performance equations for advanced meteoroid and debris shields.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 14 (1–4): 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-743X(93)90016-Z.
Christiansen, E. L. 2003. Meteoroid/debris shielding. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Christiansen, E. L. 2009. Handbook for designing MMOD protection. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Christiansen, E. L., J. L. Crews, J. E. Williamsen, J. H. Robinson, and A. M. Nolen. 1995. “Enhanced meteoroid and orbital debris shielding.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 17 (1–3): 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-743X(95)99848-L.
Christiansen, E. L., K. Nagy, D. M. Lear, and T. G. Prior. 2009. “Space station MMOD shielding.” Acta Astronaut. 65 (7–8): 921–929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2008.01.046.
Daoud, M., W. Jomaa, J. F. Chatelain, and A. Bouzid. 2015. “A machining-based methodology to identify material constitutive law for finite element simulation.” Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 77 (9): 2019–2033. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-014-6583-z.
Deconinck, P., H. Abdulhamid, P. L. Héreil, J. Mespoulet, and C. Puillet. 2017. “Experimental and numerical study of submillimeter-sized hypervelocity impacts on honeycomb sandwich structures.” Procedia Eng. 204 (Jan): 452–459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.740.
Destefanis, R., M. Faraud, and M. Trucchi. 1999. “Columbus debris shielding experiments and ballistic limit curves.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 23 (1): 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(99)00071-8.
Destefanis, R., F. Schäfer, M. Lambert, M. Faraud, and E. Schneider. 2003. “Enhanced space debris shields for manned spacecraft.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 29 (1–10): 215–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2003.09.019.
Faergestad, R. M., J. K. Holmen, T. Berstad, T. Cardone, K. Ford, and T. Borvik. 2021. “Modeling and simulation of hypervelocity impacts on spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit.” In Proc., 13th European LS-DYNA Conf. Ulm, Germany: DYNAmore GmbH.
GMX-6 Database. 1969. Selected hugoniots. Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos National Laboratories.
Heaton, J. 2008. Introduction to neural networks with Java. St. Louis, MO: Heaton Research.
IADC (Interagency Space Debris Coordination Committee). 2011. Protection manual. Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee.
Iliescu, L. E., A. A. Lakis, and A. Oulmane. 2016. “Satellites-spacecraft materials and hypervelocity impact (HVI) testing: Numerical simulations.” Eur. J. Mech. Eng. Res. 3 (3): 41–77.
Kang, P., S.-K. Youn, and J. H. Lim. 2013. “Modification of the critical projectile diameter of honeycomb sandwich panel considering the channeling effect in hypervelocity impact.” Aerosp. Sci. Technol. 29 (1): 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2013.04.011.
Kay, G. 2003. Failure modeling of titanium 6Al-4V and aluminum 2024-T3 with the Johnson-Cook material model. Livermore, CA: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Lambert, M., F. K. Schäfer, and T. Geyer. 2001. “Impact damage on sandwich panels and multi-layer insulation.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 26 (1–10): 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(01)00108-7.
Lathrop, B., and R. Sennett. 1968. “The effects of hypervelocity impact on honeycomb structures.” In Proc., 9th Structural Dynamics and Materials Conf. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Legaud, T., and V. Lapoujade. 2021. “Characterization of fragments induced by high velocity impacts and additional satellite shielding protective structures evaluation.” In Proc., 13th European LS-DYNA Users Conf. Ulm, Germany.
Legaud, T., M. Le Garrec, N. Van Dorsselaer, and V. Lapoujadet. 2019. “Improvement of satellites shielding under high velocity impact using advanced SPH method.” In Proc., 12th European LS-DYNA Conf. Ulm, Germany: DYNAmore GmbH.
Lesuer, D. R., G. J. Kay, and M. M. LeBlanc. 1999. “Modeling large-strain, high-rate deformation in metals.” In Proc., 3rd Biennial Tri-Laboratory Engineering Conf. on Modeling and Simulation. Washington, DC: US Dept. of Energy.
LSTC (Livermore Software Technology Corporation). 2013a. Vol. I of LS-DYNA, Keyword user’s manual. Livermore, CA: LSTC.
LSTC (Livermore Software Technology Corporation). 2013b. LS-DYNA, Keyword user’s manual. Volume II: Material models. Livermore, CA: LSTC.
Nasteski, V. 2017. “An overview of the supervised machine learning methods.” Horizons, Part B. 4 (Dec): 51–62. https://doi.org/10.20544/HORIZONS.B.04.1.17.P05.
NRC (National Research Council). 1997. Protecting the space station from meteoroids and orbital debris. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/5532.
Pelton, J. 2013. Space debris and other threats from outer space. New York: Springer.
Piekutowski, A. J., and K. L. Poormon. 2015. “Holes formed in thin aluminum sheets by spheres with impact velocities ranging from 2 to 10 km/s.” Procedia Eng. 103 (Jan): 482–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.04.063.
Ryan, S., and E. Christiansen. 2010. Micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) shield ballistic limit analysis program. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Ryan, S., and E. Christiansen. 2015. Hypervelocity impact testing of aluminum foam core sandwich panels. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Ryan, S., and S. Thaler. 2013. “Artificial neural networks for characterising Whipple shield performance.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 56 (Jun): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2012.10.011.
Ryan, S., S. Thaler, and S. Kandanaarachchi. 2016. “Machine learning methods for predicting the outcome of hypervelocity impact events.” Expert Syst. Appl. 45 (Mar): 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.09.038.
Schaefer, F. K., E. Schneider, and M. Lambert. 2004. “Review of ballistic limit equations for composite structure walls of satellites.” In Proc., 5th Int. Symp. on Environmental Testing for Space Programmes, 431–444. Paris: European Space Agency.
Schubert, M., S. Perfetto, A. Dafnis, D. Mayer, H. Atzrodt, and K. U. Schroder. 2017. Multifunctional load carrying lightweight structures for space design, 1–11. Darmstadt, Germany: RWTH Aachen Univ.
Steinberg, D. 1996. Equations of state and strength properties of selected materials. Livermore, CA: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Taylor, E., M. Herbert, and L. Kay. 1997a. “Hypervelocity impact on carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP)/aluminium honeycomb at normal and oblique angles.” In Vol. 393 of Proc., 2nd European Conf. on Space Debris, 429. Darmstadt, Germany: European Space Agency.
Taylor, E. A., M. K. Herbert, D. J. Gardner, L. Kay, R. Thomson, and M. J. Burchell. 1997b. “Hypervelocity impact on spacecraft carbon fibre reinforced plastic/aluminium honeycomb.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., Part G: J. Aerosp. Eng. 211 (5): 355–363. https://doi.org/10.1243/0954410971532721.
Taylor, E. A., M. K. Herbert, B. A. M. Vaughan, and J. A. M. McDonnell. 1999. “Hypervelocity impact on carbon fibre reinforced plastic/aluminium honeycomb: Comparison with Whipple bumper shields.” Int. J. Impact Eng. 23 (1): 883–893. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(99)00132-3.
Whipple, F. L. 1947. “Meteorites and space travel.” Astron. J. 52 (1161): 131. https://doi.org/10.1086/106009.
Yasensky, J., and E. L. Christiansen. 2007. Hypervelocity impact evaluation of metal foam core sandwich structures. Houston: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 4 • July 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 12, 2021
Accepted: Feb 14, 2022
Published online: Mar 28, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 28, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Sushrut Vaidya, Ramesh B. Malla, Determining Peak Shock Pressure and Cratering due to Hypervelocity Meteoroid Impact on Lunar Structures for Engineering Design, Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 10.1061/JAEEEZ.ASENG-5326, 37, 5, (2024).
- Kayleigh Fowler, Filipe Teixeira-Dias, Hybrid Shielding for Hypervelocity Impact of Orbital Debris on Unmanned Spacecraft, Applied Sciences, 10.3390/app12147071, 12, 14, (7071), (2022).