Year: 2021
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Due to their self-repair ability and efficiency after high velocity impacts, ionomers can be used to protect future spacecraft from space debris.This work describes the characterization of the Ethylene-Methacrylic Acid (EMAA) based ionomer, potentially usable in space due to its excellent impact damage recovery properties.Data from previous physical, impact and mechanical tests were used to better understand the EMAA ionomer behaviour.Among them, ballistic tests with different sample thicknesses and bullet speeds in the 1.9-4.1 km/s hypervelocity range were considered to assess the selfhealing performance of this ionomer.Experimental results showed effective healing behaviour of the ionomer, suggesting it as a promising candidate for selfrepairing space structures applications.A numerical model was subsequently defined and proved to be suitable for preliminary simulation of the EMAA self-healing behaviour under hypervelocity impacts.Nevertheless, additional characterization is required to better reproduce the whole healing process. 1
Language: English
Subfield: Polymers and Plastics
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3174042909