Compaction and fragmentation of porous gypsum targets from low-velocity impacts

We performed low-velocity impact experiments of gypsum spheres with porosity ranging from 0 to 61% and diameter ranging from 25 to 83 min. The impact velocity was from 0.2 to 22 m/s. The target was an iron plate. The outcome of gypsum spheres with porosity 31-61% was different from those of nonporous ice [Higa M., Arakawa, M., Maeno, N., 1996. Planet. Space Sci. 44, 917-925; Higa M., Arakawa, M., Maeno, N., 1998. Icarus 133, 310-320] and non-porous gypsum. In between the intact and fragmentation modes, the outcome of the non-porous ice and gypsum was crack growth at the impact point. However, the outcome of the porous gypsum was compaction. We found that the restitution coefficients of the porous gypsum spheres were all in a similar range, in spite of the difference of the porosity and size at impact velocities up to about 10 m/s where they begin to be fragmented in pieces. Moreover, there is not a large difference between the restitution coefficient of porous and non-porous gypsum. These results collectively indicate that restitution coefficient of gypsum spheres of cm-size is not strongly dependent upon the porosity and compaction process. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.