Abstract Hypervelocity impacts on solid surfaces generate and propagate shock waves and create extreme density, pressure, and temperature conditions. Understanding hypervelocity impacts requires a multi-physics approach at the intersection of fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, and quantum theory, which has the capability of spanning multiple different dominating physics regimes. These strong shock conditions found in hypervelocity impacts are studied in the context of high-speed collisions between spacecraft and meteoroids and debris. We study the problem of hypervelocity impacts on metals with the lens of understanding the processes that lead to the creation of an impact generated plasma. In order to characterize the impacting particle as well as its threat to spacecraft from the subsequent radiating plasma an analysis was performed that highlights how the kinetic energy of the impactor is deposited into a target, how the shock wave and shocked material in the target evolve, and how these effects can lead towards the creation of an impact plasma through heating. The analysis suggests that at low velocities the majority of the energy from a hypervelocity impact is stored in reversible elastic energy and does not contribute to strong heating. At higher impact velocities, nucleus and electron thermal components dominate, increasing the energy available for ionization. This work provides the complete set of state variable initial conditions for any study of hypervelocity impact plasma expansion and its effects.

中文翻译：

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超高速撞击金属的热力学分析

摘要 超高速撞击固体表面会产生并传播冲击波，并产生极端的密度、压力和温度条件。理解超高速影响需要在流体动力学、固体力学和量子理论的交叉点上采用多物理方法，这种方法具有跨越多种不同主导物理机制的能力。这些在超高速撞击中发现的强烈冲击条件是在航天器与流星体和碎片之间高速碰撞的背景下进行研究的。我们通过了解导致产生撞击产生的等离子体的过程来研究超高速对金属的影响问题。为了表征撞击粒子及其随后的辐射等离子体对航天器的威胁，进行了一项分析，强调撞击器的动能如何沉积到目标中，目标中的冲击波和冲击材料如何演变，以及这些效应如何通过加热导致产生冲击等离子体。分析表明，在低速下，超高速撞击产生的大部分能量存储在可逆弹性能量中，不会导致强烈加热。在更高的撞击速度下，原子核和电子热成分占主导地位，增加了可用于电离的能量。这项工作为任何超高速撞击等离子体膨胀及其影响的研究提供了完整的状态变量初始条件集。