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Impact drag force exerting on a projectile penetrating into a hierarchical granular bed

Impact of a solid object onto a small-body surface can be modeled by the solid impact onto a hierarchically structured granular target. Impact drag force model for the hierarchically structured granular target is developed based on the experiment. We perform a set of granular impact experiments in which mechanical strength and porosity of target grains are systematically varied. Tiny glass beads ($5$~$μ$m in diameter) are agglomerated to form porous grains of $2$--$4$~mm in diameter. Then, the grains are sintered to control their strength. A polyethylene sphere ($12.7$~mm in diameter) is dropped onto a hierarchical granular target consisting of these porous grains. Motion of the penetrating sphere is captured by a high-speed camera and analyzed. We find that impact drag force produced by the hierarchically structured granular target can be modeled by the sum of inertial drag and depth-proportional drag. The depth-proportional drag in hierarchical granular impact is much greater than that of the usual granular target consisting of rigid grains. The ratio between grain strength and impact dynamic pressure is a key dimensionless parameter to characterize this extraordinary large depth-proportional drag. Grain fracturing plays an important role in the impact dynamics when the impact dynamic pressure is sufficiently larger than the grain strength. This implies that the effect of grain fracturing should be considered also for the impact on a small body. Perhaps, effective strength of the surface grains can be estimated based on the kinematic observation of the intrusion or touchdown of the planetary explorator.