Disturbance characteristics analysis of magnetically suspended and mechanical flywheels

Disturbance generated from flywheel will have bad effects on the attitude control precision and stability of spacecraft. Magnetically and mechanical bearings are mainly used to suspend the high speed rotor of the flywheel. The mathematical model of flywheel is founded and the disturbance characteristics of mechanical and magnetically suspended flywheels are also compared. At last, the experiments are performed and the corresponding theoretical results are tested. The research shows that the disturbance of the flywheel is generated mainly from the unbalance of the high speed rotor, and compared with the mechanical suspended flywheel whose disturbance contains complex frequency component the gyroscopic effect is stronger for the gap between the axis and the bearing in magnetically suspended flywheel.