A consideration on size and area-to-mass distributions for breakup fragments

The objective of this paper is to examine the applicability of the hypervelocity collision model adopted in the NASA standard breakup model 2000 revision to low-velocity impact on spacecraft. Therefore, we performed some impact test at a velocity range less than 1.5 km/s. A target impacted was a aluminum honeycomb sandwich panel with CFRP face sheets, while a projectile launched was an aluminum solid sphere. We compared the data from those impact tests with the hypervelocity collision model. From this comparison, we have found that a lower boundary exists on area-to-mass distribution to explain the disagreement between the data and the hypervelocity collision model. We also proposed two different fashions to modify size distribution. Finally, this paper will conclude that the hypervelocity collision model can be applied to low-velocity impact on spacecraft with the above-introduced modifications.