The increasing number of constellation satellites requires re-thinking of the design and manufacturing process for reaction wheel rotors. Mass optimisation of reaction wheel rotors leads to cost reduction and performance increase. Those optimisations can be realised by taking ideas from nature. Therefore, design principles of diatoms were screened, abstracted and implemented in an algorithm-based design process. In this way, a bio-inspired rotor was created, which considers launch and in-operation loads, is capable of up to 7500 RPM and shows a compact design with a diameter of $$282\,\text {mm}$$ 282 mm . Regarding mechanical performance, an energy density of $$4661\,\text {J kg}^{-1}$$ 4661 J kg - 1 and a mass moment of inertia ratio of 0.7584, which considers the component and an idealized design, could be achieved. Compared to a commercial rotor, this is equivalent to a similar inertia ratio and +85 % energy density, but +44 % mass due to manufacturing restrictions. Based on different boundary conditions, different first natural frequency for launch and operation conditions were obtained ($$658\,\text {Hz}$$ 658 Hz and $$210\,\text {Hz}$$ 210 Hz ). The new design was cast from nano-reinforced aluminium alloy (AlSi10Mg + Al2O3) in 3D-printed sand moulds that were produced via binder-jetting process. Thus, a hybrid manufacturing process was used, by combining additive manufacturing and casting. Post-processing of the cast part via turning and milling was performed to compensate distortion and achieve the required surface quality. Preliminary vibration measurements were performed, showing a large need for balancing to achieve low vibration emissions.
In aerospace industry, saving mass on spacecrafts always remain in large demand to save launch costs or increase the available payload mass. A case study is carried out designing a first concept of an additive manufactured flywheel of a reaction wheel, as it is one of the heaviest parts of wheel systems. As an objective the mass is minimized, while obtaining an angular momentum suitable according to mission requirements and maintaining recent performances. As references the SeaSAT mission and a commercial reaction wheel are used. The work includes a preliminary dimension of the flywheels design space by MATLAB calculations, where in total 15 shapes are analyzed and compared. The most promising design space is afterwards analyzed via the finite-element tool ANSYS and is defined as the reference flywheel. The reference flywheel is used for topology optimizations (ANSYS Topology Optimization), where different boundary conditions are considered. The final designed flywheel obtains 16% higher energy density than the reference flywheel and withstands the mission loads. It can be concluded that it was possible to design a flywheel obtaining less mass while keeping the expected performance.
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