AN ESTIMATION METHOD OF THE NATURAL FREQUENCY OF A CUBE FORM MICRO SATELLITE

Abstract

Micro satellites must survive severe mechanical conditions during their launch phase. One design requirement for rockets is the stiffness requirement, i.e. the natural frequencies requirement. In the early stages of satellite development, presumption of the natural frequency of a satellite may be difficult. The material used for the structure of many micro satellites is an aluminum alloy. The structure subsystem occupies a large portion of the satellite mass, and the elastic modulus of this aluminum alloy is larger than that of other subsystems. Therefore, the mechanical property of the aluminum alloy cannot be used to represent the mechanical property of the whole satellite.  The density of an actual satellite differs from the density of the aluminum alloy.  Therefore, when estimating the minimum natural frequency, the size and the elastic modules of an actual satellite structure must be used.  When using an actual satellite structure, the estimated minimum natural frequencies of the lateral direction and the longitudinal direction during the ascent phase are in agreement with the measured values acquired by the vibration tests. In order to shorten a process of satellite development, this paper describes a practical method for estimating the natural frequency of a micro satellite.