The influence of temperature on the drift of gyroscope

Abstract

The dynamics, especially the drift, of a gyroscope with slowly varying axisymmetrical mass distribution are studied. By the data of temperature field of the inner gimbal, the changes of the position of center of mass and moments of inertia of the inner gimbal of gyro with time are obtained through the finite element method and approximate model study. The drift of a gyroscope can be analytically investigated according to the variation of the nutation angle and the precession angle. Since the temperature varies with time, the equations of motion are nonautonomous nonlinear differential equations. The analytical approximation is obtained by multiple scales method. The nutation angle and the precession angle in some given time intervals are calculated and are compared with the numerical results, obtained by using the MATLAB software package, with satisfactory consistency.