Preliminary study on shielding performance of wood stuffed shield

• The wood stuffed shield was proposed and investigated to quest a lighter shield with higher shielding performance.
• Hypervelocity impact tests on the wood stuffed shield, glass-epoxy stuffed shield, Nextel/Kevlar fabric stuffed shield and aluminum triple-wall shield were carried out to assess the shielding performance of the wood stuffed shield preliminarily.
• Simulations on the glass-epoxy stuffed shield and aluminum triple-wall shield were carried out to explore the reason why light material such as the wood or glass-epoxy plate stuffed in shield can improve shielding performance.
• The shielding performance of wood stuffed shield is superior to that of aluminum triple-wall shield obviously, and similar to that of Nextel/Kevlar fabric stuffed shield.

In an effort to find a lighter shield for shielding space debris impact, the wood stuffed shield was proposed in this paper based on the wood properties such as low density, low cost, high yield strength when the strain rate is high. Hypervelocity impact tests (Ф = 5.0 mm~ 8.0 mm, V = 4.79 km/s ~ 7.24 km/s) were carried out to compare the shielding capabilities of the pinewood stuffed shield, aluminum triple-wall shield and Nextel/Kevlar fabric stuffed shield with the same areal density. Results show that, with the same areal density, the shielding capability of the wood stuffed shield is greater than that of the aluminum triple-wall shield and similar to that of Nextel/Kevlar fabric stuffed shield which is widely used on the spacecraft. To explore the reason why the shielding capability of the wood stuffed shield is effective relative to an aluminum triple-wall shield, SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamic) simulations were carried out.