Abstract Hypervelocity impact (HVI) of Al spheres upon thin Al plates arouses high amplitude shock waves. Along with the wave propagation, the sphere and plate undergo massive failure, breakup and phase changes, and end up with diffusing debris clouds. Combined with the theories of wave interaction and tensile failure, this paper reveals the failure evolution during HVI of Al spheres onto thin Al plates through Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The relation between the failure evolution and the formation process of debris cloud is analyzed. The influence of impact conditions (impact velocity and projectile-diameter-to-plate-thickness ratio) on the failure evolution, the debris cloud formation, and the largest fragment is also discussed. The analysis of the failure evolution and debris cloud formation in this paper can provide new insight for the quantitative study of HVI and space debris protection.

中文翻译：

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铝球超高速撞击薄铝板的失效演变

摘要 铝球对薄铝板的超高速撞击 (HVI) 会引起高振幅冲击波。随着波的传播，球体和板块经历了巨大的破坏、破裂和相变，最终形成了扩散的碎片云。结合波浪相互作用和拉伸破坏的理论，本文通过平滑粒子流体动力学（SPH）方法揭示了铝球在薄铝板上的 HVI 过程中的破坏演变。分析了破坏演化与碎片云形成过程的关系。还讨论了撞击条件（撞击速度和弹丸直径与板厚比）对破坏演化、碎片云形成和最大碎片的影响。