Material optimization of carbon/epoxy composite rotor for spacecraft energy storage

• Main Authors: Varatharajoo, Renuganth, Salit, Mohd Sapuan, Goh, Kian Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Multi Science Publishing 2010
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/15558/1/Material%20optimization%20of%20carbon.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/15558/
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

An investigation to optimize the carbon/epoxy composite rotor is performed for the spacecraft energy storage application. A high speed multi-layer rotor design is proposed and different composite materials are tested to achieve the most suitable recipe. First, the analytical rotor evaluation is performed to establish a reliable numerical rotor model. Then, finite element analysis (FEA) is employed in order to optimise the multi-layer composite rotor design. Subsequently, the modal analysis is carried out to determine the rotor natural frequencies and mode shapes for a safe operational regime below 50, 000 rpm.