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The rotational inertial navigation system (INS) has received wide attention in recent years because it can achieve high precision without using costly inertial sensors. However, the introduction of the turntable causes additional errors, including mounting errors between the inertial measurement unit (IMU) axes and the turntable axes. Analysis, calibration and compensation of the mounting errors are necessary in rotational INS. In this paper, the mounting errors are introduced into the sensor model of a dual-axis rotational INS. Analysing the improved model indicated that the mounting errors’ effect on the IMU errors is inconspicuous, but the effect on the output attitude is significant. If the output attitude is not required, the mounting errors can be ignored; conversely, it is important to calibrate and compensate for such errors. A calibration method for the mounting errors is designed using the thin-shell (TS) algorithm, and the method's precision has the same order of magnitude as the residuals of gyro misalignment in the simulation test. Laboratory experimental results validate the theory and proved that the calibration and compensation method for mounting errors proposed in this paper helps improve the output attitude's precision without a precise installation.

High-precision electrostatic accelerometers have achieved remarkable success in satellite Earth gravity field recovery missions. Ultralow-noise inertial sensors play important roles in space gravitational wave detection missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, and key technologies have been verified in the LISA Pathfinder mission. Meanwhile, at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST, China), a space accelerometer and inertial sensor based on capacitive sensors and the electrostatic control technique have also been studied and developed independently for more than 16 years. In this paper, we review the operational principle, application, and requirements of the electrostatic accelerometer and inertial sensor in different space missions. The development and progress of a space electrostatic accelerometer at HUST, including ground investigation and space verification are presented.

The effect of sediment on the hydraulics of jet energy dissipation is an urgent issue for high dams built on sediment-laden rivers. Accordingly, flume experiments were conducted using a ski-jump type energy dissipator in flows of four sediment concentrations (0 kg/m3, 50 kg/m3, 150 kg/m3, and 250 kg/m3) to determine the effects on discharge, flow regime, and hydrodynamic pressure in a plunge pool. The results demonstrate that the effect of sediment on discharge is constant, regardless of sediment concentration, when compared to fresh water. The width of the nappe decreased with increasing concentrations of sediment. The length of the jet trajectory increased with upstream water head. The time-averaged pressure and fluctuation pressure both exhibited peaks, describing the impact of the jet on the bottom of the plunge pool. The maximum time-averaged pressure and maximum fluctuating pressure both noticeably increased with upstream water head and slightly increased with sediment concentration for a given flow condition. The results also demonstrated that the dominant frequency of fluctuation trends to lower values, and that both the fluctuating energy and vortex scale increase with increasing sediment concentrations due to increased viscosity. These findings can be used to improve energy dissipation in dams on sediment-laden rivers.

An electrostatic-controlled torsion pendulum combined with a scanning conducting probe is used to measure the temporal and spatial variations of the surface potential on test mass. The apparatus can work in static and scanning modes. Temporal variation of the surface potential can be measured with the static mode, and its voltage variation with a level of 15 μV=Hz 1=2 at 0.03 Hz has been achieved for a 5 × 5 mm 2 area. The spatial distribution of the surface potential can be measured with the scanning mode, and the surface potential distribution can be obtained at a level of 330 μV at 0.125 mm spatial resolution. The experimental results tell us that the apparatus provide a new way to investigate the charge distribution and its variation, which is very useful in helping to understand the physical mechanism of the surface charge distribution of an actual object.

In order to suppress the electrostatic and magnetic field effects, ultrathin metal wires are often employed for discharging the proof mass which is used in a highprecision space electrostatic accelerometer or gravitational experiments. This wire introduces a thermal noise limit based on fluctuation-dissipation theory, which depends upon its stiffness and structural loss. In this paper, a simple method for measuring the stiffness and the loss angle of a thin discharging wire is presented by connecting it to a pendulum suspended by a high-quality silica fiber with negligible dissipation. The stiffness and the loss angle of a 10 μm gold wire are measured; the experimental results agree with theoretical estimation. The thermal noise of the pendulum with a thin discharging wire is estimated, and its possible applications in the gravitational experiments are also discussed.

A rotational inertial navigation system (RINS) has been wildly used in long term marine navigation. In a dual-axis RINS, with all constant biases averaged out, the errors which can not be averaged out become the main error source. In this paper, the gyro geomagnetic biases of a dual-axis RINS are modelled, analysed and calibrated. The gyro geomagnetic biases are proved unable to be averaged out, but can be modulated to be a constant value in the navigation frame. A slope error term of longitude error is found to be caused by gyro geomagnetic biases in north and upward directions, which increases linearly with time and is remarkable in long term navigation. Thus, a calibration method based on least square regression is proposed to compensate the slope error term. Laboratory and sailing experimental results show that the divergence speed of longitude error can be effectively slowed down by the compensation of gyro geomagnetic biases. In long term independent navigation, the position accuracy of dual-axis RINS is improved about 50% by the calibration method proposed in this paper.

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