Experimental and numerical investigation of coupled microvibration dynamics for satellite reaction wheels

Microvibrations of a satellite reaction wheel assembly are commonly analysed in either hard-mounted or coupled boundary conditions, though coupled wheel-to-structure disturbance models are more representative of the real environment in which the wheel operates. This article investigates the coupled microvibration dynamics of a cantilever configured reaction wheel assembly mounted on either a stiff or flexible platform. Here a method is presented to cope with modern project necessities: (i) need of a model which gives accurate estimates covering a wide frequency range; (ii) reduce the personnel and time costs derived from the test campaign, (iii) reduce the computational effort without affecting the quality of the results. The method involves measurements of the disturbances induced by the reaction wheel assembly in a hard-mounted configuration and of the frequency and speed dependent dynamic mass of the reaction wheel. In addition, it corrects the approximation due to missing speed dependent dynamic mass in conventional reaction wheel assembly microvibration analysis. The former was evaluated experimentally using a previously designed and validated platform. The latter, on the other hand, was estimated analytically using a finite element model of the wheel assembly. Finally, the validation of the coupled wheel-structure disturbance model is presented, giving indication of the level of accuracy that can be achieved with this type of analyses.