The role of material strength in collisions -- Comparing solid body and hydrodynamic physics for simulating collisions of planetesimals with icy shells

Abstract

Context. We investigate the effects of including material strength in multi-material planetesimal collisions. Aims. The differences between strengthless material models and including the full elasto-plastic model for solid bodies with brittle failure and fragmentation when treating collisions of asteroid-sized bodies as they occur frequently in early planetary systems are demonstrated. Methods. We study impacts of bodies of Ceres-mass with a solid rock impactor and a target with 30 weight-% water content as surface ice.} The initial impact velocities and impact parameters are varied between the escape velocity $v_\mathrm{esc}$ to about 6 $v_\mathrm{esc}$ and from head-on collisions to close fly-bys, respectively. We simulate the collisions using our own SPH code utilizing both strengthless material and the full elasto-plastic material model including brittle failure. Results. One of the most prominent differences is the higher degree of fragmentation and shattered debris clouds in the solid model. In most collision scenarios however, the final outcomes are very similar and differ primarily by the about one order of magnitude higher degree of fragmentation in the solid case. Also, the survivors tend to be of less mass in the solid case which also predicts a higher water loss than the strengthless hydro model. This may be an effect of the relatively low-energy impacts that cannot destroy the solid material instantly. As opposed to giant impacts we also observe an indication that some water ice gets transferred between the bodies.