Vibration control design of fuel sloshing in a spacecraft using virtual actuator

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to modeling of fuel sloshing dynamics and its effect on the stability and control of the space vehicle. Sloshing due to the liquid movement in the fuel tank of a space vehicle's propulsion system can be effective on the vehicle’s control and stability. Force and moment interaction between fuel sloshing and space vehicle’s control system will be appeared as a feedback in the control system. With respect to simplicity of analyzing of a rigid body's equations of motion in comparison with a fluid dynamics equations and as a result reducing computational efforts, it is possible to apply a mechanical model instead. So in this paper fuel sloshing is modelled as a linear mechanical system to investigate its effect on the stability and control of the vehicle. For this purpose, two mechanical models, mass-spring and pendulum systems, are applied to model dynamics of a space vehicle with fuel sloshing and each system’s parameters are evaluated for simulat.