Lightweight high-performance space debris protection energetic composite structure

Abstract

The invention relates to a light-weight high-performance space debris protection energetic composite structure which comprises a high-impedance metal protrusion structure, an energetic material structure and a high-impedance metal thin plate which are sequentially arranged from outside to inside, the high-impedance metal protrusion structure comprises a plurality of protrusions, and the energetic material structure with holes comprises a plurality of energetic material blocks. An energetic material block is correspondingly arranged in each protrusion, through holes are formed in the energetic material blocks, and the energetic material blocks can generate deflagration reaction when impacted at the speed larger than 2 km / s. Due to the design of the energetic composite structure, the weight of the protection plate is reduced, and the synergistic effect of the two materials is fully exerted. The high-impedance metal material is responsible for preliminarily dispersing and intercepting space debris, and the energetic material further weakens and disperses impact energy through deflagration. By means of the design, the problem that a traditional protection material is single in performance when facing impact of space debris of different sizes is effectively solved, and meanwhile balance of light weight and efficient protection performance is achieved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of space debris protection, and more specifically to a lightweight and high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection. Background Art

[0002] As countries continue to develop and utilize outer space, the amount of space debris is growing at an alarming rate. These debris, including abandoned satellites, rocket parts, debris from explosions, and the wreckage of various other man-made objects, have become a major threat to space activities. Especially in low-Earth orbit, the density of debris is high, and the risk it poses to spacecraft safety is becoming increasingly severe. The speed of space debris usually reaches several thousand meters per second. Even small debris with a diameter of only a few millimeters can cause serious damage to the structure of a spacecraft once it collides with a high-speed spacecraft. Such a collision may cause plastic deformation, pitting, perforation of the cabin wall, and even cause the failure of the internal system of the spacecraft, which will have catastrophic consequences and endanger the on-orbit operation of the spacecraft.

[0003] Faced with this threat, countries have taken a variety of measures to reduce the hazards of space debris. On the one hand, when spacecraft are in orbit, they need to actively avoid large-sized debris through orbital monitoring and early warning systems to avoid serious collisions. However, due to the limitations of current technical means, it is difficult to fully monitor and avoid small-sized debris, and such debris may also pose a fatal threat to spacecraft. Therefore, in addition to actively avoiding large-sized debris, it is also necessary to start from the perspective of passive protection and design reasonable protection structures to resist the impact of these small-sized debris (less than 1 cm in size) that are difficult to monitor. Such a protection structure not only needs to have sufficient strength and impact resistance, but also needs to take into account lightweight design to meet the strict requirements of spacecraft on weight and performance.

[0004] The usual protective structure is to add a single or multi-layer protective plate outside the spacecraft cabin, including various improved Whipple protective structures, such as multi-layer impact protective structure, corrugated protective screen protective structure, mesh protective structure, filled protective structure, etc. However, among these protective structures, when space debris hits the single-layer plate of these structures, the contact mode of the protective structure is relatively simple. Summary of the invention

[0005] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a lightweight and high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection, which can achieve more efficient protection capabilities while meeting lightweight requirements.

[0006] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve its technical problems is: constructing a lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection, including a high-impedance metal protrusion structure, an energetic material structure and a high-impedance metal sheet arranged in sequence from the outside to the inside, the high-impedance metal protrusion structure includes a plurality of protrusions arranged at uniform intervals, the energetic material structure containing pores includes a plurality of energetic material blocks arranged at uniform intervals, one energetic material block is correspondingly arranged inside a protrusion, a through hole is provided inside the energetic material block, and the energetic material block can produce a deflagration reaction when hit at a speed greater than 2 km / s.

[0007] According to the above solution, the protrusion is a cross-shaped protrusion or a circular hole-shaped protrusion.

[0008] According to the above solution, the high-impedance metal protrusion structure is made of aluminum alloy or titanium alloy.

[0009] According to the above solution, the high-impedance metal sheet is made of aluminum alloy or titanium alloy.

[0010] According to the above scheme, the energetic material block is made of PTFE / Al, THV / Ta or MnO2 / Al.

[0011] According to the above solution, the energetic material block is rectangular or circular.

[0012] According to the above solution, the high-impedance metal protrusion structure and the high-impedance metal sheet are integrally formed.

[0013] According to the above solution, the through hole inside the energetic material block is a stepped hole.

[0014] The lightweight and high-performance energetic composite structure for protecting space debris according to the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0015] 1. This invention proposes a new design idea for protective structure, namely, particle size screening, designing different specific structural combinations, and on the basis of lightweight, different parts of the structure have better protection effect against debris of specific sizes. This design achieves effective protection against space debris of different sizes through specific structural optimization and material distribution in a single-layer protective plate, and takes into account the requirements of lightweight and high protection performance.

[0016] Specifically, during the impact of space debris, the first thing to do is to target larger-sized space debris. The design uses the high strength and high hardness of high-impedance metal materials to quickly disperse large-sized space debris into medium-sized fragments upon impact through the principle of shock wave superposition. Then, when medium-sized fragments impact the energetic material area, the deflagration effect of the material is triggered. The deflagration process not only further decomposes the fragments into smaller fragments, but also effectively dissipates the kinetic energy of the space debris by releasing energy, thereby significantly reducing its destructiveness. Finally, small-sized fragments are intercepted by high-impedance metal materials to ensure that they do not cause damage to the target.

[0017] 2. The design of the energetic composite structure of the present invention not only reduces the weight of the protective plate, but also gives full play to the synergistic effect of the two materials. The high-impedance metal material is responsible for the initial dispersion and interception of space debris, while the energetic material further weakens and disperses the impact energy through deflagration. This design effectively solves the problem of the single performance of traditional protective materials when facing the impact of space debris of different sizes, and at the same time achieves a balance between lightweight and efficient protective performance. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments, in which:

[0019] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of a lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection;

[0020] Figure 2 This is a front view of a lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection;

[0021] Figure 3 It is a cross-sectional view of a lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection;

[0022] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of an energetic composite structure in which the protruding structure and the energetic material are circular;

[0023] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the stress wave response when impacting a raised structure;

[0024] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the internal dimensions of the energetic composite structure provided in the embodiment;

[0025] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of specific simulation working conditions provided by the embodiment;

[0026] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the protective effect of a lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] In order to have a clearer understanding of the technical features, purposes and effects of the present invention, specific embodiments of the present invention are now described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0028] The present invention provides a lightweight and high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection, which combines high-impedance metal materials with energetic materials. Through the combination of different materials and structures, a balance between protection performance and lightweight is achieved. The basic composition of the protective structure is as follows: Figure 1-3 As shown, it is mainly composed of high-impedance metal and energetic material, and includes three levels from the outside to the inside: high-impedance metal protrusion structure 1, energetic material structure containing pores 2 and high-impedance metal thin plate 3. The high-impedance metal protrusion structure includes a plurality of evenly spaced protrusions, and the energetic material structure containing pores includes a plurality of evenly spaced energetic material blocks, and one energetic material block is arranged inside a protrusion. Through the synergistic effect of these three-layer structures, the present invention can not only effectively intercept and crush space debris, but also propose a new protection idea based on particle size screening, which not only ensures the protection effect, but also greatly reduces the weight of the protective plate, showing excellent application potential.

[0029] The first layer is a high-impedance metal protrusion structure on the outside, which forms an integrated design with the high-impedance metal sheet on the third layer. Since metals usually have high impedance, high-impedance materials such as aluminum alloy and titanium alloy can be selected. The mechanical wave impedance is required to be greater than 10 7 N·s / m 3 .like Figure 4 As shown in the figure, the shape of the protrusion structure can be flexibly set according to specific needs, such as using cross-shaped protrusions, circular hole protrusions and other geometric forms to meet different protection requirements. Its core function is to deal with space debris of different sizes through physical screening. Specifically, Figure 5 As shown, when large-sized space debris hits a protruding structure, due to the characteristics of high-impedance metal materials, the high-impedance material will reflect strong stress waves, and due to the spacing design between the protruding structures, the space debris may be affected by multiple protrusions during the impact, so that the stress waves stimulated by different protrusions are superimposed inside the space debris, causing the space debris to break more violently.

[0030] The second layer is a porous energetic material structure. Since the protective plate is mainly used to protect high-speed space debris, the energetic material is required to be able to produce a deflagration reaction when hit at a speed greater than 2 km / s. The material can be PTFE / Al, THV / Ta, MnO2 / Al and other energetic active materials. Figure 4As shown, the shape and pore structure of the energetic material can be flexibly set according to specific needs, such as using a variety of rectangular and circular geometric forms and their combination forms to meet different protection requirements. The pores in this embodiment are stepped through holes. The size and distribution of the pore structure can be adjusted and optimized according to the size of the fragments to be protected. The main function of this layer is to deal with small and medium-sized fragments, using the deflagration characteristics of the energetic material, quickly reducing the kinetic energy of the fragments through the recoil effect, and further decomposing them into smaller fragments. At the same time, due to the low density of the energetic material and the presence of pores, the use of this layer of material provides important support for the lightweight design of the entire protective structure.

[0031] The third layer is a high-impedance metal sheet. The material is the same as the first layer. High-impedance materials such as aluminum alloy and titanium alloy can be used to form a whole with the raised structure of the first layer. The main function of this layer is to serve as the last barrier to intercept and block the remaining small-sized debris and small-sized space debris that have not been effectively affected by the first two layers. Since the third layer is in the inner layer and directly faces the debris that has been processed by the first two layers, its thickness and strength can be optimized according to the specific application scenario, so as to reduce the weight as much as possible while meeting the protection needs. The characteristics of its high-impedance material can effectively absorb the remaining kinetic energy of the debris, thereby ensuring the safety of the interior of the spacecraft.

[0032] The energetic composite structure of the present invention has a high degree of adjustability in thickness, material and geometric design. According to the structural characteristics and protection requirements of different spacecraft, the material selection, thickness distribution and geometric shape of the three-layer structure can be optimized and adjusted. For example, for areas that need to be protected, the thickness of the first-layer protrusion structure can be appropriately increased; for parts that need to reduce weight, lighter metal materials can be used or the thickness of the third-layer thin plate can be reduced.

[0033] Specifically, in order to verify the protective performance of the designed energetic composite structure, two sets of simulation comparison tests were carried out. First, a protective plate with a specific configuration was designed based on the proposed energetic composite structure. The energetic material part uses fluoropolymer-based energetic active material PTFE / Al, which has a density of 2.20g / cm 3 , has excellent impact detonation ability; the high impedance metal material part uses 2024 aluminum alloy, and its density is 2.78g / cm 3 , with excellent impact resistance. In order to improve the protection effect, the geometric structure design of the protective plate adopts a cross-shaped protrusion and a square groove configuration, with a size such as Figure 6As shown, the sizes of a, b, c, and d are set according to the large, medium, and small size fragments to be protected, which are 8mm, 6mm, 4mm, and 1mm respectively; the sizes of h1, h2, h3, and h4 are set to 6mm, 4mm, 2mm, and 1mm respectively. According to calculations, the surface density of the energetic composite structure under this size is 1.134g / cm 2 , which is equivalent to a 4.08 mm thick 2024 aluminum alloy plate. In order to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the energetic composite structure, this aluminum alloy plate was selected as the control group.

[0034] A real impact condition is set in the simulation, such as Figure 7 As shown in the figure, space debris hits two target plates at a speed of 5 km / s, of which the first layer is a different protective structure (composite structure or aluminum alloy plate) and the second layer is a cabin plate that needs to be protected. The space debris and cabin plate materials are set to 2024 aluminum alloy. The protection mechanism of the composite structure is designed to achieve phased weakening and blocking of space debris of different sizes. Therefore, three spherical space debris with diameters of 3 mm, 5 mm and 7 mm are designed for simulation tests. These debris represent the typical size distribution range that may exist in the actual space environment, which helps to comprehensively evaluate the adaptability and performance of the protection structure.

[0035] In the simulation test, the designed energetic composite structure and the control aluminum alloy plate were calculated and analyzed respectively. Figure 8 As shown. From the simulation results, it can be seen that the energetic composite structure shows significant protection advantages compared to aluminum alloy plates of equivalent thickness when dealing with projectiles of different sizes: it effectively weakens the kinetic energy of the fragments through the superposition of stress waves stimulated by high-impedance metals and the deflagration effect of energetic materials, while the high-impedance metal layer provides strong mechanical support. These protection mechanisms enable the composite structure to show good protection effects under various impact conditions, especially when facing the impact of large-sized projectiles (7mm), its performance advantages are more obvious, showing extremely strong impact resistance and energy absorption capabilities.

[0036] The embodiments of the present invention are described above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned specific implementation methods. The above-mentioned specific implementation methods are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Under the enlightenment of the present invention, ordinary technicians in this field can also make many forms without departing from the scope of protection of the purpose of the present invention and the claims, which all fall within the protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection, characterized in that: It comprises a high-impedance metal protrusion structure, an energetic material structure and a high-impedance metal sheet which are arranged in sequence from the outside to the inside. The high-impedance metal protrusion structure comprises a plurality of protrusions arranged at uniform intervals. The energetic material structure containing pores comprises a plurality of energetic material blocks arranged at uniform intervals. One energetic material block is arranged inside a protrusion. A through hole is arranged inside the energetic material block. The energetic material block can produce a deflagration reaction when hit at a speed greater than 2 km / s.

2. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The protrusion is a cross-shaped protrusion or a circular hole-shaped protrusion.

3. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The high-impedance metal protrusion structure is made of aluminum alloy or titanium alloy.

4. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The high-impedance metal thin plate is made of aluminum alloy or titanium alloy.

5. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The energetic material block is made of PTFE / Al, THV / Ta or MnO2 / Al.

6. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The energetic material block is rectangular or circular.

7. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The high-impedance metal protrusion structure and the high-impedance metal thin plate are integrally formed.

8. The lightweight, high-performance energetic composite structure for space debris protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The through hole inside the energetic material block is a stepped hole.

Images