Vibration analysis and testing of a 6U cubesat propulsion system

Abstract: Space industry has been booming in the recent times, investments have not justbeen made on satellites and launch vehicles but also on space sustainability. Spaceindustry has its users in national agencies, private commercial agencies, academia andexperimental organisations. Smallsats and cubesats are one of the most interestingdomains in space industry today. This has led to pure research and astonishinginnovations in this domain to enable lower costs, lower mass, increased orbital period,better accessibility and global impact. Development of sustainable products requiresthe system to qualify a certain standard set up in the industry. This standard ensuresthat the system safely completes its mission up in space. The problem described byGomSpace Sweden concerns one of their ongoing products, a cold gas propulsionunit which is suitable for a typical 6U cubesat called ESA6DOF. In large, the productconsists of a structure, two propellant tanks, one plenum tank, piping, electronics andsix thrusters. Qualification of this propulsion system module involves the system toundergo a random vibration test according to ECSS standards. This thesis work shallbe focused on setting up the structure needed to perform random vibration simulationsin COMSOL. This step is done to primarily iterate the design to make it robust enoughto sustain loads during flight and also to avoid any physical damages during testingcampaign. Followed by performing the actual random vibration test at a facility usingthe assembled ESA6DOF propulsion module. Finally, this ends with validating thesimulation results with that of testing.