Sandwich panels are widely used in the design of unmanned satellites and in addition to having a structural function, can often serve as orbital debris shielding. In this application, sandwich panels with open-cell foam cores have a significant advantage, enabling intensive interaction between the impactor fragments and the foam ligaments which enhances the fragments’ breakdown and reduces their damaging potential. Modeling of this process requires an explicit meso-scale representation of the core material. In this study, realistic geometry models were obtained for 10 ppi and 20 ppi 8% aluminum open-cell foams using X-ray Computed Tomography imaging. They were then converted into meshless simulation models and used in modeling of 6.9 km/s particles impact on foam core sandwich panels. Results of the numerical simulations were compared with experimental data reported by NASA in terms of the panels’ core and rear facesheet damage.

夹心板广泛用于无人卫星的设计，并且除了具有结构功能外，还经常可以用作轨道碎片防护。在此应用中，具有开孔泡沫芯的夹心板具有显着的优势，可以使冲击器碎片与泡沫韧带之间进行紧密的相互作用，从而增强碎片的分解能力并降低其破坏潜力。该过程的建模需要对核心材料进行显式的中尺度表示。在这项研究中，使用X射线计算机断层扫描成像技术获得了10 ppi和20 ppi 8％的铝开孔泡沫的逼真的几何模型。然后将它们转换为无网格仿真模型，并用于对6.9 km / s的颗粒撞击泡沫夹芯夹心板进行建模。