Microvibrations Induced by a Cantilevered Wheel Assembly with a Soft-Suspension System

Microvibration management onboard spacecraft with high stability requirements has drawn increasing interest from engineers and scientists, and this paper discusses a reaction wheel design that allows a significant reduction of mid- to high-frequency microvibrations and that has been practically implemented in industry. Disturbances typically induced by mechanical systems onboard a spacecraft (especially rotating devices such as reaction wheel assemblies and momentum wheel assemblies) can severely degrade the performance of sensitive instruments. Traditionally, wheel-induced high-frequency (over 100-200 Hz) vibrations, generated by a combination of phenomena from bearing noise to dynamic amplifications due to internal resonances, are especially difficult to control. In this paper, the dynamic behavior of a newly designed wheel assembly, with a cantilevered flywheel configuration supported by a soft-suspension system, is investigated. The wheel assembly's mathematical model is developed and later verified with vibration tests. Wheel-assembly-induced lateral and axial microvibrations are accurately measured using a seismic-mass microvibration measurement system, which represents an alternative to typical microvibration measurement setups. Finally, the performance of this wheel assembly in terms of microvibration emissions is compared with a traditional design (with a rigid suspension) through comparison of frequency spectra, and it is shown that this design produces significantly lower vibrations at high frequency.