Improved shielding structure with double honeycomb cores for hyper-velocity impact

• 3D point-based internal-structure model of double honeycomb panel is established.
• Influences of intermediate plate position on shielding performance are obtained.
• An optimal shielding distance of front honeycomb core is derived.
• A new shielding structure with multiple honeycomb cores is proposed.

Aluminum sandwich panel made from double honeycomb cores can serve as a cost-effective shielding structure against hyper-velocity impact of space debris. The double honeycomb sandwich panel is improved and investigated in detail in this paper. Different from the original structure, the transverse position of the intermediate facesheet is varied instead of at the right middle of the panel. The influence of the transverse position is investigated numerically with point-based internal-structure model and material point method. Much better shielding performance can be obtained when the distance between the intermediate facesheet and the front facesheet is around the equivalent shielding distance. The equivalent shielding distance is defined as the maximum distance the debris fragments can travel in transverse direction before they interact with honeycomb cell walls. The morphologies of the facesheets and the residual energy are also discussed. A new shielding structure with multiple intermediate facesheets is suggested based on simulation results, and substantially improved shielding capability is achieved.