Temperature effects on bumper hole diameter for impact velocities from 2 to 7 km/s

Hypervelocity impact testing of elevated and room temperature bumpers was performed to establish whether or not bumper hole diameter is temperature dependent. The hole diameters in the heated bumper tests were found to be significantly larger than those of the room temperature tests. The heated and room temperature bumper data were compared to the Housen-Schmidt, Maiden, and Nysmith bumper hole diameter models to determine how well the models predicted the data. The Housen-Schmidt model correlated well with the room temperature bumper data, but did not correlate well with the heated data sets. The Maiden and Nysmith models did not appear to correlate with any of the data sets. Empirical models were formulated to predict hole sizes from 2 to 7 km/s for heated bumpers at the various temperatures considered. Good correlation was found between the models developed and the test data. The test results obtained and the models developed suggest that bumper hole diameter is indeed temperature dependent. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.