Behavior of dragon skin flexible metal bumper under hypervelocity impact

Abstract

The need for large space structures has been of significant interest in recent years, owing to the expansion of potential space applications. The use of flexible and inflatable shield designs is a very promising method for constructing spacious structures in space. Dragon skin or so-called fish-scale armor may provide an effective flexible bumper structure for space. This is the first study to evaluate dragon skin as a bumper against hypervelocity impact of micro-meteoroid and orbital debris in space. In this research, hypervelocity impact experiments and various numerical simulations were conducted. It was found that the deflection effect and critical impact location factor prevailed in the dragon skin bumper; hence, fragmentation can be seriously affected by the dragon skin shape. However, a simulation work of the research showed that the shape effect can be alleviated by using a thin and dense metal material instead of aluminum. In conclusion, the dragon skin structure can be utilized as a bumper in space with consideration of several design factors that are reported in this study.