Thermal and structural coupling analysis of magnetically suspended flywheel rotor

Abstract

Magnetically suspended flywheel (MSFW) is used in spacecraft to control the attitude. The mechanical structure of MSFW must accommodate thermal strains due to the temperature differences. And both the thermal stresses and the thermal loads change as the size and shape of the structure changes. Therefore, coupling exists between the heat transfer and the static stress analysis problems. In this paper finite element method (FEM) is used to process the thermal and structural analysis of the MSFW rotor and motor stator. The solution is performed by ANSYS software code. The temperature distribution is determined by the steady state thermal analysis. Based on the temperature field results, the thermal stress and deformation fields are calculated as well. The results provide the theoretical basis for the thermal design and can also be a guide for the structural optimization of the MSFW.