Ballistic Limit Thickness and Weight of High Strength Fiber Fabrics for Sub-millimeter Steel Sphere Impact at 6 km/s

Abstract

Sub-millimeter debris impact is a cause of mission failure for satellites in low earth orbit. To protect a satellite, important components whose failure can cause critical damage to the satellite should be installed inside the satellite structure. However, this is impossible for some components, e.g., expandable structures and wire harnesses. To protect these components, a flexible debris bumper is proposed in this study. The ballistic limits of fabric bumper shields made from high-strength fibers were investigated through hypervelocity impact experiments. Three types of Kevlar cloth, two types of Beta cloth, and three types of Nextel cloth were tested, and their ballistic limit thicknesses and weights were calculated. The Beta cloth was the thinnest bumper, and the high modulus Kevlar cloth was the lightest bumper. Fabric bumper shields required more thickness than a conventional aluminum bumper. However, they can reduce weight by 30–60% compared to aluminum.