Nutation damping of spinning satellite with viscous annular dampers

A new assumption, that the fluid in an annular damper is supposed to be a variable slug, is taken to discuss the nutation damping of a spinning satellite with a partially filled viscous annular damper. The dynamical equations for the spinning satellite with the damper are established by application of the equations of the first order in normal form for the rigid body. Approximate analytical solutions of nutation angle attenuation are obtained by the successive approximation and the small parameter methods. The theoretical results from the variable slug can explain the experimental phenomena, which are not explainable by the results from the conventional rigid assumption, taken by most the former references. Thus the presented analytical solutions provide a more reliable basis for designing the annular damper.