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Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36

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3rd International Conference on Mechatronics and Intelligent Robotics (ICMIR-2019)

Research on In-Situ Measurement Simulation Test of Inertia of

Flywheel Simulator by SimMechanics
Ji Liang Zhao1,*1
1,*1, Bo Ni22, Liang Jun Zhang11, Hai Feng Luo11, Jia Jin Yuan11

1
1Aerospace System Engineering Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Aerospace System Engineering Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2
2Shanghai
Shanghai precision
precision measuring
measuring and
and Testing
Testing Institute,
Institute, Shanghai,
Shanghai, China
China

Abstract.
Abstract.

Inertial
Inertial mass
mass simulation
simulation system
system isis widely
widely used
used in
in inertia
inertia load
load simulation
simulation of
of space
space mechanisms.
mechanisms. TheThe error
error of
of the
the inertia
inertia mass
mass has
has aa
great
great influence
influence on on the
the mechanism
mechanism performance
performance test.
test. In
In this
this paper,
paper, the
the in-situ
in-situ measurement
measurement technology
technology ofof flywheel
flywheel inertial
inertial mass
mass is
is
studied:
studied: firstly,
firstly, the
the theory
theory of
of in-situ
in-situ inertial
inertial mass
mass measurement
measurement is is analyzed
analyzed by
by use
use of
of mass-spring
mass-spring model;
model; secondly,
secondly, the
the simulation
simulation
models
models ofof the
the flywheel
flywheel before
before oror after
after attaching
attaching counterweights
counterweights areare established
established based
based on
on Sim-Mechanics
Sim-Mechanics of of MATLAB;
MATLAB; at at last,
last,
according
according to to the
the simulation
simulation test
test and
and analysis
analysis of
of the
the model,
model, the
the correctness
correctness of
of the
the theoretical
theoretical derivation
derivation of
of in-situ
in-situ measurement
measurement is is
verified,
verified, which
which lays
lays aa theoretical
theoretical foundation
foundation for
for in-situ
in-situ inertial
inertial mass
mass measurement
measurement of of the
the flywheel.
flywheel.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
©
© 2019
2019 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published by
by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open accessPublished
article under Elsevier B.V.
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics and Intelligent
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientificcommittee
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committeeofofthe
the3rd
3rd International
International Conference
Conference on
on Mechatronics and Intelligent
Mechatronics and Intelligent
Robotics
Robotics (ICMIR-2019)
(ICMIR-2019)
Robotics, ICMIR-2019.
Keywords:
Keywords: In-situ measurement of
In-situ measurement of MOI; Simulation test;
MOI; Simulation test; MATLAB;
MATLAB; SimMechanics
SimMechanics

1. Introduction
1. Introduction

Rotating mechanism
Rotating mechanism is is widely
widely used
used for
for executive
executive mechanism
mechanism in in the
the field
field of
of aerospace.
aerospace. The
The start-up
start-up and
and brake
brake
characteristics of
characteristics of rotation
rotation mechanism
mechanism areare key
key characteristics
characteristics of
of them
them [1-3].
[1-3]. In
In general,
general, inertial
inertial mass
mass simulation
simulation
system is
system is used
used to
to simulate
simulate the
the load
load of
of rotating
rotating mechanism
mechanism forfor measuring
measuring thethe characteristics
characteristics of
of rotation
rotation mechanism.
mechanism.
The combination
The combination modemode with
with physical
physical inertial
inertial mass
mass and
and air
air floatation
floatation is
is mostly
mostly applied
applied for
for inertial
inertial mass
mass simulation
simulation
system. As
system. As the
the air
air floatation
floatation overcomes
overcomes thethe gravity
gravity of
of physical
physical inertia,
inertia, which
which causes
causes less
less friction
friction between
between moving
moving
bodies, the
bodies, the inertia
inertia load
load in
in space
space can
can be
be accurately
accurately simulated.
simulated. This
This method
method hashas the
the advantages
advantages ofof simple
simple principle,
principle,

11
Corresponding
Corresponding Author.
Author. Tel.+(86)
Tel.+(86) 13391270558
13391270558
**
E-mail:
E-mail: ZJL3657253@163.com
ZJL3657253@163.com

2019
2019 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V. This
This is
is an
an open
open access
access article
article under
under the
the CC
CC BY-NC-ND
BY-NC-ND license
license
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection
Selection and
and peer-review
peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of
of the
the scientific
scientific committee
committee of
of the
the 3rd
3rd International
International Conference
Conference on
on Mechatronics
Mechatronics and
and Intelligent
Intelligent
Robotics
Robotics (ICMIR-2019)
(ICMIR-2019)

1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics and Intelligent Robotics,
ICMIR-2019.
10.1016/j.procs.2020.02.008
32 Ji Liang Zhao et al. / Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36

intuition and high reliability, and has been widely used in the field of aerospace. In the common inertial mass
simulation system at present, the inertia value of physical inertia is mostly theoretical value, and the real value
cannot be obtained directly. If the error between the real inertia value and the theoretical one is too large, the test
results will be seriously affected and the test data will be distorted. Therefore, there is an important practical
significance for the research of in-situ inertial mass measurement technology

2. General Structure of Inertial Mass Simulation System

The inertial mass simulation system consists of a test-bed control computer, a torque sensor, an angle sensor, a
flywheel inertia simulator and an air-bearing platform. In the system, friction torque generated by dead-weight of
flywheel inertia simulator is significantly decreased by air-bearing platform, which enables the flywheel can
approximately simulate the inertia load during the rotating process of the space mechanism. Therefore, it is a key
device for testing the performance of the space rotation mechanism.

1-shield, 2-guardrail, 3-tested object, 4-bearing frame, 5-rotating axle, 6-flywheel, 7-air floating platform, 8-sliding bracket
Figure.1 Schematic diagram of inertia mass simulation system

3. Principle of In-Situ Inertial Mass Measurement

Flywheel inertia simulator is placed on smooth and flat granite air-bearing platform, when the air-bearing
platform is inflated; a layer of gas film is formed between the flywheel inertia simulator and the air-bearing platform
for floating of the inertia simulator, which can greatly reduce the friction resistance caused by the rotation of the
inertia simulator.
spring osillatorK

L inertial mass
 simulator

platform
support

shafting O

Figure.2 The principle diagram of in-situ inertial mass measurement of simulator

For in-situ inertial mass measurement of simulator, spring oscillator method is selected and used. By installing
excitation spring on the simulator, the inertia simulator is equated with a single DOF mass-spring system, and its
amplitude is guaranteed to be less than 5 degrees in order to satisfy the condition of micro-amplitude vibration. The
principle diagram of in-situ inertial mass measurement of simulator by spring oscillator method is shown in the
Figure 2.
 Ji Liang Zhao et al. / Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36 33

Ignoring air damping and air friction, the vibration equation of inertia simulator based on mass-spring mode
method is written as:


J   KL2  0 (1)

where, J means the inertial mass of the flywheel simulator along shafting O, K means the spring linear stiffness, L
means the parallel distance from spring to shafting O, and θ means the angular displacement of the system motion.
By solving the free vibration equation of the above formula, we can get the result that:

KL2
   0 sin( t  ) (2)
J

KL2
So, the eigenfrequency can be given as   .
J
Therefore, the relational expression between J ( inertial mass of flywheel simulator) and T (vibration period of
flywheel simulator) is known that:

2 2 J
T 
 L K (3)

Because the spring linear stiffness K is not easy to measure, it will not only bring great errors, but also difficult to
trace the source effectively. For obtaining the value of inertia J, the method of additional mass counterweight is
adopted here: additional counterweights are placed at the lower end of flywheel simulator, the inertia J of the
counterweight along axis O can be obtained by accurate measurement.The vibration period of free vibration of
corresponding components after attaching the counterweights is written as:

2 2 J  J
T  
 L K
(4)

Simultaneous Formula (3) and Formula (4) to eliminate K , the inertial mass of the flywheel simulator can be
obtained:

T2
J J
T 2  T 2
(5)

4. Simulation Test

As can be seen above, the principle of inertial mass measurement of flywheel inertia simulator is mainly based
on spring oscillator method. The vibration cycle of flywheel inertia simulator before and after attaching inertia under
the same spring oscillator drive is investigated, and the inertia value of flywheel inertia simulator is calculated.
Simulator simulation models before and after additional inertia are built based on SimMechanics [4,5].
34 Ji Liang Zhao et al. / Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36

4.1 Modeling and Simulation of Flywheel Inertia Simulator

The simulation model of flywheel inertia simulator based on Sim-Mechanics is shown in Figure 3. It is assumed
that the inertial mass of the simulator along the rotation axis is 10000 kgm2, and the inertial mass is averagely
distributed among eight flywheel weights. The simulation model of the flywheel simulator is shown in Figure 4.

Figure.3 Model of flywheel inertia simulator

Figure.4 Setting of inertia value of single flywheel

The spring parameters set by module “BODY SPRING & DAMPER” in Figure 3 are shown in Figure 5 below.
Running the model displayed in Figure 3 to observe the simulation process through window “MACHINE FOR
MODEL”, the simulation process is shown in Figure 6.

Figure.5 Setting of spring stiffness

 Ji Liang Zhao et al. / Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36 35

Figure.6 Simulation process of the model of flywheel inertia simulator

After finishing the simulation, the rotation angle of spring during vibration is read by MATLAB, as shown in
Figure 7 below.

-0.5
Angle/deg

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5

0 2 4 6 8
Time/s

Figure.7 Rotation angle of spring during vibration

4.2 Model of Flywheel Inertia Simulator with Additional Inertia

The flywheel inertia simulator with additional inertia is built by use of Sim-Mechanics. Running the Sim-
Mechanics model of flywheel inertia simulator with additional inertia, spring linear stiffness and other settings of
the simulator are exactly the same as those of the simulation model without additional inertia. the rotation angle of
spring during vibration is read by MATLAB, as shown in Figure 8 below.
0

-0.5

-1
Angle/deg

-1.5

-2

-2.5

0 2 4 6 8 10
Time/s

Figure.8 Rotation angle after attaching additional inertia

4.3 Simulation Calculation of Inertia

From the above, it can be seen that the additional inertia of the simulator component is 2000 kgm2. Through the
above simulation test, it can be seen that:
36 Ji Liang Zhao et al. / Procedia Computer Science 166 (2020) 31–36

T =0.96307s, T  = 1.055s;

T2
J  J = 10001.43kgm2
T 2  T 2

So, the relative error of inertia mass measurement can be obtained:

（10001.43-10000）/10000*100%=0.0143%

From the simulation analysis test, we can seen that the relative error is mainly caused by the reading error of the
vibration period, which has very small influence on in-situ inertial mass measurement and can be neglected.

5. Conclusion

In this article, in order to study the in-situ inertial mass measurement method of the flywheel inertia simulator,
the theoretical analysis of in-situ measurement technology based on spring oscillator method is firstly carried out.
Secondly, by use of Sim-Mechanics software, the simulation models of flywheel inertia simulator before and after
additional inertia are built. At last, according to the simulation analysis of the model, the vibration period of the
spring oscillator with or without counterweights is obtained, and the inertia value of the flywheel is calculated. Thus,
the correctness of theoretical derivation is verified, which lays a theoretical foundation for in-situ measurement of
flywheel inertia simulator.

6. Acknowledgment

The authors would like to think the reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions which have
improved the presentation of the paper.

7. References

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