An innovative, low-weight shield system has been developed by NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) engineers to enhance the protection of conventional Whipple shields. This shield, the "Stuffed Whipple" shield, includes a flexible blanket combining Nextel TM ceramic fabric and Kevlar TM fabric (or "stuffing") between the aluminum bumper and rear wall of a Whipple shield. The Stuffed Whipple (SW) shield is particularly effective if shield standoffs are short (i.e., shield spacing to projectile diameter ratios of 15 or less). Alternative shields using aluminum, Nextel TM or Kevlar TM alone as the intermediate bumper were tested but did not provide the same level of protection performance for the weight as a combination of Nextel TM and Kevlar TM. Hypervelocity impact (HVI) testing with greater than lg aluminum projectiles using Light-Gas Guns (LGG) up to-7 km/sec and Shaped-Charge Launchers (SCL) up to ~11 km/sec were used in the development program. NOTATION d 0c P m S t3 t 0 V Projectile diameter (cm) Projectile diameter causing failure; i.e., "critical" particle that just results in complete penetration of the shield's rear wall (cm) Density (g/cm 3) Areal density (g/cm 2) Overall spacing from the front of outer bumper to the back of rear wail (cm) Rear wail yield stress (ksi) Thickness (cm) Impact angle measured from surface normal (deg) Projectile speed (km/sec) Subscripts: b All bumpers (Nextel TM, mesh, and aluminum) and intermediate layers (MLI and Kevlar TM) p projectile w rear wail
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