Air-Jet Thrusters for Active Vibration Control: Design and Calibration.

摘要

Gas-jet thrusters are used extensively for controlling spacecraft in flight. Inexpensive laboratory-grade thrusters operate in essentially the same fashion as space-qualified thrusters, and they find many terrestrial applications such as dynamic excitation and control. In particular, thrusters powered by compressed gas have been applied recently as actuators in several experimental studies of methods for active control of vibration and maneuvering. However, when we wished to apply thrusters in our experiments on active vibration control, we were unable to find detailed and complete information on design, calibration, and operating characteristics of laboratory-grade thrusters. Earlier reports included a short description of an electrical circuit for controlling thrusters and short discussions of calibration and measured operating characteristics, but a great deal more information is required before properly functioning thrusters can be assembled and accurately calibrated.