Uncertainty Considerations for Ballistic Limit Equations for Aerospace Structural Systems

Schonberg, William P.; Evans, Hilary; Williamsen, Joel E.; Boyer, Roger L.; Nakayama, Glen S.

doi:10.1115/imece2005-79709

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This is due to the typical steep variation of the flux (in the mass range of interest for most of failure modes and for most of the environment models) as a function of the particle size. The sensitivity study [8] mentioned above reported an increase in the failures level as high as 120 per cent for a decrease in the critical size predicted by the BLEs of a mere 20 per cent. On the other side, an increase by 20 per cent of the critical size predicted by the BLE was reported to decrease the predicted risk level by more than 50 per cent.…”

Section: Damage Equations and Hypervelocity Impact Testsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…These uncertainties in the environment models affect the results of the probabilistic risk assessment. According to a sensitivity study of the dependence of MMOD risk prediction for the shuttle on several assumptions and parameters [8], the variations in the number of failures can be assumed to scale linearly with variations in the number of particles (i.e. fluxes).…”

Section: Meteoroids and Debris Environment Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis methodologies for assessing micro-meteoroids and orbital debris risk to spacecraft

Destefanis

2007

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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Every space system is exposed to the risk of collision with space debris and micrometeoroids throughout its orbital life. Because of the large collision velocities, debris or meteoroids in the millimetre to centimetre range may cause significant damage to a spacecraft, which can result in potential generation of debris, loss of equipment and mission failure. The current paper deals with the probabilistic risk assessment of spacecraft survivability under micro-meteoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) impact. The typical process to calculate the MMOD induced risk is summarized and the main uncertainties and limitations affecting the assessment are discussed together with a simple example of a MMOD risk assessment performed for the European spaceship automated transfer vehicle. In order to increase the level of accuracy of MMOD risk assessments, improvements are necessary in the following critical areas: failure criteria analysis, project-dedicated hypervelocity impact testing and debris environment models.

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Section: Damage Equations and Hypervelocity Impact Testsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Meteoroids and Debris Environment Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis methodologies for assessing micro-meteoroids and orbital debris risk to spacecraft

Destefanis

2007

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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“…In order to assess the "goodness of fit" for the new BLEs and compare it that of the original NNO BLE, we can use specificity and sensitivity ratios, which are defined as follows (see [26] for additional information regarding these quantities):…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved ballistic limit equations for high-speed non-aluminum projectiles impacting aluminum dual-wall spacecraft systems

Schonberg

2020

SN Appl. Sci.

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One of the major design considerations of earth-orbiting spacecraft is the damage that might occur from an impact by a micrometeoroid or orbital debris particle. Ballistic limit equations (BLEs), which predict the response of spacecraft components under impact, are one of the key components of any micrometeoroid / orbital debris risk assessment calculation. However, given that a limited number of BLEs have been developed, analysts will sometimes use a BLE to assess the impact projectile made of a material that was not used in the development of that BLE. This paper presents the results of a two-part study that focused non-aluminum projectiles impacting aluminum dual-wall structures. In the first, results from high-speed impact tests using non-aluminum projectiles were compared against the predictions of a commonly used dual-wall BLE. In nearly all cases, this BLE was found not to work sufficiently well in predicting the highspeed impact response of non-aluminum projectiles. In the second, the dual-wall BLE was modified to more correctly predict the response of such wall systems to the high-speed impact of non-aluminum projectiles. This modified BLE was found to be much improved in predicting whether or not a high-speed non-aluminum projectile would perforate a dual-wall system.

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“…This issue, as well as techniques that can be used to statistically derive BLEs for dual-wall structures, is discussed in more detail in Ref. [11]. In the discussions that follow, original, non-reduced values of critical diameters as calculated by the current NASA/JSC BLE are used.…”

Section: The Nasa/msfc Test Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

Application of the NASA/JSC Whipple shield ballistic limit equations to dual-wall targets under hypervelocity impact

Schonberg

Compton

2008

International Journal of Impact Engineering

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Uncertainty Considerations for Ballistic Limit Equations for Aerospace Structural Systems

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

Analysis methodologies for assessing micro-meteoroids and orbital debris risk to spacecraft

Analysis methodologies for assessing micro-meteoroids and orbital debris risk to spacecraft

Improved ballistic limit equations for high-speed non-aluminum projectiles impacting aluminum dual-wall spacecraft systems

Application of the NASA/JSC Whipple shield ballistic limit equations to dual-wall targets under hypervelocity impact

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