Numerical simulation of the influence of geometric parameters on a spherical magnetohydrodynamic attitude controller

Anlei Zhou¹ - Youlin Gu¹ - Chaozhen Liu² - Qinghua Liang¹ - Shigang Wang¹

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P.R. China
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Aerospace Intelligent Control Technology, Shanghai Aerospace Control Technology Institute, Shanghai 201109, P.R. China

Abstract
In this paper, a novel magnetohydrodynamic attitude adjustment method is proposed, which only uses a spherical magnetohydrodynamic attitude controller for three-axis attitude adjustment. The electromagnetic field equations and fluid flow equations are simultaneously solved using a finite volume method. The purpose of the simulation is to analyze the influences of changing parameters of geometric design of the proposed mechanism on the magnetic field distribution, flow field distribution, angular momentum, and output torque. Also, the influences of different numbers of poles and slots on the magnetic field distribution, flow field distribution, and attitude adjustment parameters are studied. It was found that the magnetic induction intensity, fluid velocity, angular momentum, and torque produced by the electromagnetic actuator with 4 poles and 24 slots are almost the largest in the proposed mechanism. Therefore, 4 poles and 24 slots are selected as the design parameter of the electromagnetic actuator. Furthermore, the magnetic field distribution, flow field distribution, angular momentum, and the output torque in four different fluid domains are studied. It was found that the angular momentum increases with the increase in the range of flow field. However, for a certain range of flow, the increase in angular momentum is minimum. In addition, the output torque produced by the fluid does not change basically with the flow field range. According to the numerical results, a combination of pole and slot numbers and the range of flow field are proposed for the physical design of the proposed mechanism. Note that this study can provide a reference for the optimal design of the proposed mechanism. Key words: Magnetohydrodynamic, fluid momentum controller, numerical simulation, angular momentum, output torque. Tables 3, Figs 20, Refs 22.