Abstract
Reaction wheel assemblies are one of the most important microvibration sources on typical modern satellites. In this paper microvibrations induced by a cantilevered reaction wheel assembly are modelled and validated against microvibration test results. The disturbance model is developed using energy method. A microvibration measurement platform is designed to measure its disturbances. Disturbance test results are analyzed in detail. The peculiar dynamic characteristics such as nonlinearity and high damping of harmonic responses in the test results are discussed. Estimations of damping values used in the disturbance model are introduced. A new method developed to model harmonic excitations is discussed. Furthermore, novel methods to identify harmonics and extract model parameters from test results are presented. The empirical modeling method developed for broadband noise excitations are also introduced and validated. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.