Global chaotic dynamics of liquid-filled spacecraft with flexible appendage

In this paper, the chaotic dynamics in an attitude transition maneuver of a rigid body with a completely liquid-filled cavity in going from minor axis to major axis spin under the influence of viscous damping and a small flexible appendage constrained to undergo only torsional vibration is investigated. The focus in this paper is on the way in which the dynamics of the liquid and flexible appendage vibration are coupled. The equation of motion are derived and then transformed into a form suitable for the application of Melnikov's method. Melnikov's integral is used to predict the transversal intersections of the stable and unstable manifolds for the perturbed system. An analytical criterion for chaotic motion is derived in terms of the system parameters. This criterion is evaluated for its significance to the design of spacecraft. In addition, the Melnikov criterion is compared with numerical simulations of the system. The dependence of the onset of chaos on quantities such as body shape and magnitude of damping values, frequency of flexible appendage vibration are investigated.