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The Open Aerospace Engineering Journal, 2013, 6, 1-5 1

Open Access
Hysteresis Nutation Damper for Spin Satellite
Hamed Shahmohamadi Ousaloo*

Space Science Research Institute (SSRI), Tehran, Iran

Abstract: Hysteresis dampers are commonly used in Passive magnetic Attitude Control System (PACS). In PACS these
rods produce a damping torque and reduce the satellite angular momentum and angular velocity. In this paper, a spin
satellite was investigated which utilizes a passive magnetic damper consisting of magnetic hysteresis rods aligned with
principal axis or spin axis of satellite and de-tumbling of the satellite, and the pure spin was achieved.
An analytical model was presented to analyze hysteresis damper and a numerical simulation was performed to obtain
dynamic properties of the spin attitude. In addition, assuming a dynamic imbalance, attitude behavior and damper effect
on the spin rate of satellite were analyzed. The behavior of this passive magnetic stabilized satellite was simulated from
the initial post separation phase.
Keywords: Hysteresis dampers, nutation damper, spin stabilization, dynamic imbalance, passsive magnetic attitude control system.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the

results of using hysteresis dampers as nutation dampers in
Spin stabilization is a current method to stabilize the
spin satellite to dissipate kinetic energy. One way to acquire
attitude of a satellite in space. With spin stabilization, the
passive angular rate damping is simply adding magnetic
satellite gains a gyroscopic stiffness which makes its
hysteresis material. Passive magnetic stabilization is very
accurate control possible. Unwanted oscillations of the
attractive. It’s often used in small and light satellites to gain
satellite must be damped out. Therefore, satellites are usually
basic pointing or merely to avoid random and unpredictable
equipped with one or more nutation damping equipments.
tumble. Magnetic hysteresis rods are used to create passive
Nutation or damping unwanted angular rate can be achieved
de-tumble torques on the satellite. With this system, the
by active or passive attitude control. The active way is
rotation is damped about two un-spin axes. The main
performed by countering the attitude determination using the
advantages of these dampers are their cost and reliability.
respective sensors. This feedback system increases the power
But they are not programmable and their capability for
consumption, complexity, and risk of an active attitude
attitude stabilization is limited.
determination and control system. But in the passive way, no
external energy and additional sensors and actuators are DESIGN OF HYSTERESIS DAMPER FOR SPIN
required. However, a dynamic analysis of the satellite SATELLITE
attitude with damper is required to obtain mass properties
To investigate hysteresis damper, a mathematical
and arrangement of the damper inside the satellite without
simulation of the hysteresis phenomenon and the satellite
any damage.
spin is required. Hysteresis dampers are currently used in
Passive angular rate damping of the satellite using passive magnetic attitude control system (PACS) [7-9].
dampers was first performed in 1963 by Miles [1]. Many PACS has two main components. One plays as permanent
types of nutation dampers have been designed for spin- magnets which aligns the satellite with the earth magnetic
stabilized spacecrafts ranging in size from small to large field when it moves on its orbit. These permanent magnets
satellites. Nutation dampers dissipate the kinetic energy of are made of hard ferromagnetic materials and exchange the
periodic rotations of a satellite in a specific direction. When angular momentum of the satellite. The other component of
energy is dissipated, the principal axis of the angular PACS is a set of hysteresis rods. These rods produce a
momentum vector becomes aligned with the largest moment damping torque to enhance the energy dissipation property
of inertia. There are a variety of these dampers including of soft ferromagnetic materials and reduce the satellite
viscous ring dampers [2], ball in tube dampers [3], pendulum angular momentum by converting a part of the angular
dampers [4], wheel dampers [5] and spring-mass-dampers motion kinetic energy to heat; consequently, the angular
[6]. velocity decreases. Hysteresis magnetic materials are much
like permanent magnets in their function, except that their
permeability is significantly higher. The most popular and
*Address correspondence to this author at the Space Science Research current hysteresis magnetic material is hysteresis damper
Institute (SSRI), Tehran, Iran; Tel:+982177919668; Fax;+982177919668; represented by an elongated rod made of soft-magnetic
Email: [email protected] materials with heat treatment. Hysteresis materials have

1874-1460/13 2013 Bentham Open

2 The Open Aerospace Engineering Journal, 2013, Volume 6 Hamed Shahmohamadi Ousaloo

magnetic domains with random distribution resulting in a characterized by the maximum magnetization (saturation
zero magnetic dipole. When subjected to an external field, induction (Bs)), the remaining magnetization after removal
the domains orient themselves. After removing the external of the external field (remanence (Br)), and the magnetic field
field, the residual magnetization remains. In fact, depending required to nullify the magnetization (coercive force (Hc)).
on the material magnetic properties, it retains a magnetic The way by which soft magnetic materials are magnetized
dipole of some strength when the external magnetic field is depending on the external field can be displayed in a B-H
removed. curve.
The damping torque provided by the hysteresis rods in a This curve was shown in Fig. (2).
magnetic field is obtained from:
T = m
Bb (1)
b b b b
where B =[Bx By Bz ] is the earth magnetic flux expressed
in body-fixed frame relative to inertial frame, m is the
magnetic moment of the hysteresis rod given by:

m = [ mh 0 0]
BhVh (2)
mh =
μ0
where mh is the magnetic moment of hysteresis rod aligned
with spin axis or X axis (Fig. 1), Bh is the magnetic flux
induced in the rod, Vh is the volume of the rod, and μ0 is the
permeability of free space.

Fig. (2). Hysteresis loop diagram.

Various mathematical models were presented for
hysteresis rods in the literature [10, 11]. One of them was
proposed by Kumar [11] based on an induced flux density
developed by Flately [10] as:
1 B
 = tan( r )
HC 2Bs
(3)
2
Bh = Bs tan
1 [ (H ± H c )]

where
is a constant value and H is the component of
Fig. (1). Hysteresis materials in spin satellite aligned with spin axis.
magnetic field strength aligned with the hysteresis rod. A
In this paper, hysteresis damper was investigated with positive value for Hc is used if dH/dt< 0 and a negative
two hysteresis rods aligned with the satellite spin axis (Fig. value of -Hc is used if dH/dt> 0.
1). In this configuration, the un-spin angular rate is damped
The magnetic material PERMENORM 5000 H2 is used
passively and the nutation angle is dissipated.
in all hysteresis rod dampers because it produces high
The hysteresis rods produce variable magnetic dipoles hysteresis losses and is unaffected by pace environment over
(mh) proportional to the earth magnetic field component long periods of time. Some properties of this material are:
along with the satellite spin axis. Hysteresis magnetic
Hc[A/m]=5,Bs[T]= 1.55, Br[T]= 0.755,
[g/cm3]= 8.25
materials have significantly higher permeability than
permanent magnets. Hence, affecting by a variable magnetic HYSTERESIS DAMPER AND SPIN DYNAMIC
field, the hysteresis materials tend to show a dynamic CONDITIONS
realignment of micro-magnetic dipoles and a variation in
Consider the rotational properties of a rigid satellite
magnetic domain boundaries. These changes cause frictional
equipped with hysteresis dampers. First, we assume that the
dissipation of energy at the molecular level. This
satellite is dynamically balanced and the body-fixed
phenomenon is known as hysteresis dissipation [13].
coordinates are selected to be coincident with the spacecraft
MODEL OF MAGNETIC HYSTERESIS DAMPING principal axes. The dynamic properties of spacecraft are
given by:
The B-H curve of Fig. (2) represents a hysteresis loop at
saturation state. This loop is generally defined by three dLB / dt = N B
 BI  LB (4a)
magnetic hysteresis parameters. The material can be
Hysteresis Nutation Damper for Spin Satellite The Open Aerospace Engineering Journal, 2013, Volume 6 3

dLI / dt = N I = ABI
T
NB (4b) where  is the rate vector, s is the desired rate vector about
X axis, and
is the acquisition spin rate. It can be shown
where LB is the spacecraft angular momentum about center that if the magnetic hysteresis is selected based on Eq. (2),
of mass expressed in the spacecraft body frame or in inertial the time variation rate of V is negative for an axisymmetric
reference frame, LI. N is the external torque including the inertia matrix of the form I=diag(Is,It,It). It was observed in
disturbance torques and the hysteresis torques. ABI is the Fig. (3) that the time rating of Lyapunov function is negative
inertial-to-body attitude matrix. The angular velocity BI is throughout nutation damping via hysteresis rods.
given by:
 BI = J
1 LB (5)
where J is the spacecraft moment-of-inertia tensor (kgm2).
Spacecraft dynamic condition is usually modeled by Eq.
(4a) and kinematic condition is modeled by:
dABI / dt =
[ BI ]ABI (6)
where
 0
 3 2 
 
[  ] =   3 0
 1  (7)

 1 0 
 2

A quaternion or some other lower-dimensional Fig. (3). Lyapunov function.
representation of ABI is often integrated rather than Eq. (6).
In this paper, the kinematic equations were expressed by The imbalance existing in a spinning body can be in the
separate integrations of the vector and the scalar part of the form of static or dynamic imbalance. A static imbalance is
attitude quaternion. generally an imbalance in a radial direction to the axis of
rotation and is produced by a force that remains constant in
   0 
    the orientation relative to the spinning body. On the other

 z y x  
 1  1 hand, a dynamic imbalance is generally produced by a
 
   

 z
0
x y   moment created when assembly spins rotate about an axis
 2 =1 2
2 other than the principle axis. When an asymmetric body

(8)

 z
 0    rotates about the principle axis, or a symmetric body rotates
 3 x z  3
 
0 

 about an axis other than the principle axis, the outcome is
 4

 x


 4


y z dynamic imbalance. Due to the dynamic imbalance, the

spinning body develops an angle of wobble at which the
where the quaternion q = (
1 ,
2 ,
3 , 4 ) for attitude angular momentum vector aligns with the axis with the
representation can be derived from the Euler axis, e, and maximum moment of inertia; although this vector doesn't
principal rotation angle, , as follows: coincide with the spin axis. In fact, in this situation, the
rotating object possesses product of inertia in the body frame

= e sin( 2) system. Since the nutation angle is the angle between the
1 1

= e sin( 2) angular momentum vector and the spin axis of the
2 2 spacecraft, in the balanced case, the spin axis and the
(9)

= e sin( 2) principal axis coincide, and the nutation is formed because of
3 3
disturbance and the initial angular velocity in post separation
 = cos( 2)
4 phase. However, under imbalanced condition, since the
angular momentum axis and the spin axis do not align,
A quaternion satisfied the constraint qT q = 1 : nutation (which is known as wobble angle) always exists
[12]. Considering that the spacecraft angular momentum is
 2 +
12 +
22 +
32 = 1 (10) co-aligned with the satellite principal axis, the direction of
Hysteresis dampers utilize the magnetic rate damping to the spacecraft major axis is different from the direction of
establish a desired spin rate about the spin axis or X axis and spin axis or hysteresis rods due to the nature of imbalance.
remove transverse rates about the Y and Z axes. A Lyapunov Also, for an unbalanced spacecraft, the angular momentum is
function can be used in the form: expressed as:

V = 1 / 2(
 s )T I(
 s ) (11)  x   I xx x
I xy y
I xz z 

   
where  y  =  I yy y
I xy x
I yz z  (13)
   
  z   I zz z
I yz y
I xz z
 s = [
0 0] (12)
4 The Open Aerospace Engineering Journal, 2013, Volume 6 Hamed Shahmohamadi Ousaloo

Consequently, for the nutation angle, we have:

 y2 +  z2
 = tan
1 ( )=
x
(I yy y
I xy x
I yz z )2 + (I zz z
I yz y
I xz z )2
tan
1 (
I xx x
I xy y
I xz z
(14)

where
= [
x
y
z ] is the angular momentum

expressed in body-fixed frame relative to inertial frame.
SIMULATION RESULTS
An effective attitude dynamic design begins with an
analysis of external torques by the satellite. The satellite Fig. (5). Hysteresis damper effect on angular velocities in the
experiences these torques at the height of 500 kilometers. dynamically balanced spin satellite.
The simulation was for an oblate spin satellite with the
following mass properties: bus mass mb= 40 kg, with
principal moments of inertia (kg.m2) of Ixx=0.750,
Iyy=0.735, Izz=0.725. Under dynamically unbalanced
situation, the product of inertia is Ixy=Ixz=Iyz=0.01; these
amounts are zero for balanced satellite. The IGRF model for
the earth magnetic field is incorporated into the computation
of the magnetic torques due to the hysteresis rods. Two
hysteresis rods were assumed to be identical, with volume
Vh = 8.75x10-7 m3 and hysteresis constants as stated earlier.
The initial angular velocity at post separation phase was

(0)=[30 30 30] deg/sec.
A complete simulation of the satellite during the first 16
orbits after separation was illustrated in Figs. (4-8), including Fig. (6). Un-spin angular velocities damping using hysteresis
plots of the body angular rates (
x,
y,
z) for dynamically damper in the dynamically balanced spin satellite.
balanced satellite (Figs. 4-6) and unbalanced satellite (Figs.
7, 8). According to Figs. (4-6), when the satellite is
principally spinning around its long axis or x axis, damping
of un-spin angular velocity is performed exactly and the spin
rate is remained constant (Fig. 5). But in unbalanced satellite
not only un-spin angular velocities are damping, but also
spin rate is decreased (Figs. 7, 8).

Fig. (7). Hysteresis damper behavior in the dynamically unbalanced

spin satellite (Spin rate is dissipated).
CONCLUSION
This paper presented a hysteresis nutation damper for the
dynamically balanced and unbalanced spinning satellites.
The spin and hysteresis rods dynamic conditions were
modeled. This model is a passive solution to nutation
Fig. (4). Nutation damping using hysteresis damper in the damping in spin satellites while the hysteresis rods are
dynamically balanced spin satellite. aligned with the satellite spin axis. Therefore, as a result of
Hysteresis Nutation Damper for Spin Satellite The Open Aerospace Engineering Journal, 2013, Volume 6 5

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Received: January 31, 2013 Revised: July 21, 2013 Accepted: July 26, 2013

© Hamed Shahmohamadi Ousaloo; Licensee Bentham Open.

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