Microvibration analysis of a cantilever configured reaction wheel assembly

This article discusses the microvibration analysis of a cantilever configured reaction wheel assembly. Disturbances induced by the reaction wheel assembly were measured using a previously designed platform. Modelling strategies for the effect of damping are presented. Sine-sweep tests are performed and a method is developed to model harmonic excitations based on the corresponding test results. The often ignored broadband noise is modelled by removing spikes identified in the raw signal including a method of identifying spikes from energy variation and band-stop filter design. The validation of the reaction wheel disturbance model with full excitations (harmonics and broadband noise) is presented and flaws due to missing broadband noise in conventional reaction wheel assembly microvibration analysis are discussed.