Hypervelocity Impact Testing Lab
The University of Illinois Hypervelocity Impact Testing facilities provide advanced experimental capabilities for studying materials and structures under extreme impact conditions. Using both high-throughput laser-driven flyer plate testing and a two-stage light gas gun, the facility can reproduce impact velocities ranging from approximately 0.5 km/s to more than 7 km/s, including velocities representative of micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD). Testing can be combined with real-time velocity measurements, ultra-high-speed imaging, and computational modeling to characterize material response, impact damage, debris formation, and failure mechanisms.
These capabilities support a wide range of aerospace applications, including spacecraft shielding and Whipple shield development, orbital debris damage assessment, hypersonic particle impacts, material characterization under extreme pressures, and lunar plume-surface interaction studies. The combination of high-throughput testing and full-scale hypervelocity ballistic experiments allows researchers to evaluate both fundamental material behavior and spacecraft-relevant structures under realistic extreme environments.
Questions?
To inquire about pricing, obtain a quote or any other questions, please send a message to the PI: Ioannis Chasiotis, chasioti@illinois.edu, +1 217 244 1474.
Two-Stage Light Gas Gun Facility (2SLGG)
The Two-Stage Light Gas Gun provides controlled hypervelocity ballistic testing for spacecraft materials, shielding, and other structures exposed to extreme impact environments. The facility can reproduce impact conditions associated with micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) and capture the resulting debris-cloud formation and secondary impacts.
Key Specifications & Capabilities
- Projectile size: approximately 3–5 mm
- Projectile velocity: >7 km/s, with capability up to approximately 7.5 km/s
- Measures projectile incoming and exiting velocity
- Ultra-high-speed imaging: up to 1 billion frames/second
- Captures debris-cloud and fragmentation behavior
- Supports comparison with FE/SPH hypervelocity impact simulations
- Applications include MMOD, spacecraft shielding, impact damage, and hypersonics
Hypervelocity impact sequence showing the formation and propagation of a debris cloud from the target plate to a downstream witness plate. (For the little sequence of images at the bottom*)
High-Throughput Hypervelocity Impact Testing Lab
This laboratory combines laser-driven impact testing with advanced optical diagnostics to rapidly characterize material behavior under extreme shock and hypervelocity loading. A laser-driven flyer system accelerates small metal flyer plates to velocities representative of micrometeoroid and orbital-debris impacts, while integrated diagnostics measure flyer velocity and material response during testing.
- Laser-driven flyer launch system
- Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) for real-time velocity measurements
- High-speed camera
- Infrared diagnostics
- Pyrometry
- Femtosecond laser diagnostics
- Designed for high-throughput testing, with hundreds of experiments possible per day
- Supports measurement of shock properties and investigation of impact failure mechanisms
Complementary Hypervelocity Impact Testing Capabilities
Illinois offers two complementary approaches to hypervelocity impact testing, providing capabilities ranging from rapid material-level experiments to larger-scale ballistic impacts. The laser-driven flyer plate system enables high-throughput characterization of materials across a range of impact velocities, while the Two-Stage Light Gas Gun launches larger projectiles at velocities representative of orbital debris. Together, the systems support experimental investigation and computational modeling of materials and structures subjected to extreme impact environments.
Laser-Driven Flyer Plate Testing
- Flyer diameter: 0.5–1.5 mm
- Flyer thickness: 25–100 μm
- Velocity: 0.5–5 km/s
- Real-time flyer velocity measurement
- High-throughput material and shock-property characterization
Two-Stage Light Gas Gun Testing
- Projectile diameter: 3–5 mm
- Velocity: >7 km/s
- Relevant to MMOD and hypersonic impact environments
- Ultra-high-speed impact visualization
- Experimental results can be compared with FE/SPH simulations