The stress–strain state and disintegration of a meteoroid moving through the atmosphere

The solution of the problem of the stress–strain state of an elastic body of spherical shape when it enters the Earth's atmosphere at a superorbital velocity is obtained in the form of a series in Legendre polynomials, in the case of a viscous gas at hypersonic velocity, in the quasi-stationary formulation. Using the Hubert–von Mises–Hencky criterion the limit stresses corresponding to the start of disintegration are obtained. This enables the nature of the disintegration of the body to be judged and also enables the heights at which destruction of known meteoroids begins to be estimated.