Design and test of a soft suspension system for cantilevered momentum wheel assembly

Abstract

This article concentrates on design and test of a soft suspension system for cantilevered momentum wheel assembly. First, a soft suspension system consisting of four folded beams was designed via the finite element method. Next, a mathematical model was employed to investigate the performance of the soft suspension cantilevered momentum wheel assembly. Finally, the natural frequencies of the cantilevered momentum wheel assembly were verified by ‘hammering test’ and the microvibrations produced were measured by a force-acceleration measurement system consisting of a Kistler table and several accelerometers. The results show that the natural frequencies and critical speed obtained by the experiment coincided well with the mathematical model; the soft suspension system can effectively isolate the disturbances produced by the rotor when the cantilevered momentum wheel assembly operates above the critical speed; and the maximum rotational speed increases from 4900 to 6400 r/min when the vertical beam of the soft suspension system is thickened from 0.0025 to 0.003 m. Thus, the design method is valid to be used for the soft suspension system, and the soft suspension system is particularly efficient for the isolation of vibrations produced by the cantilevered momentum wheel assembly, the disturbance frequencies of which are mainly in the high-frequency range. In addition, the maximum rotational speed of the soft suspension cantilevered momentum wheel assembly can be improved by increasing the stiffness of the suspension system.