Hypervelocity impact of aluminium sphere against aluminium plate : experiment and LS-DYNA correlation

High velocity impact of 3 mm diameter aluminium sphere against thin aluminium target plate has been performed at impact velocity of about 4000 m/s with the two stage light gas gun HERMES at Thiot Ingenierie laboratory. Impacts at normal incidence and with a 32° angle generate debris clouds that were collected by an aluminium witness plate. The visualization of the debris clouds generated after the impact has been realized by using an ultra high speed framing camera. LSDYNA 3D Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics and 2D&3D Multi- Material ALE solvers (MMALE) were used to reproduce debris clouds generation and expansion in the two angle configuration. Agreement between simulations and experimental frames are discussed.