Limit analysis for hypervelocity impacts on the whipple shields

Hypervelocity impacts of space debris can lead to failure of space vehicles. Because the population of dangerous debris particles in lower Earth orbit is growing,designing shielding structures for space vehicles is necessary. The present paper is devoted to a ballistic limit equation of Whipple shielding structure under hypervelocity impact. The problem is based on the dynamic mechanics analysis. The paper obtains the parameters related to the ballistic limit and the relationship along those parameters. The ballistic limit equation is easily applied to engineering works and gives the base to experiments. The ballistic curves are presented. It is found that the ballistic curves have good agreement with those obtained by existed ballistic limit equations.