Hydrodynamic modeling of impact craters in ice

In this study, impact craters in water ice are modeled using the hydrodynamic code CTH. In order to capture impact cratering in ice, an equation of state and a material model were created and validated. Cratering simulation results correlated well with known experimental results found in the literature with some minor differences that are discussed. An important result from this study was that the simulations showed a proportional correlation between the damaged volume of the ice crater produced by an aluminum projectile and the projectile's momentum. Also, the identification of four distinct stages in the crater development of ice (contact and compression, initial damage progression, crater shaping, and ejected damaged material) is introduced and described.