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I have designed a 3D model of a gyroscope that has 3 rotors that revolve around x, y and z intersecting axis. All rotors share the same centre of mass at the datum.

I am trying to understand how these masses would behave when the gyro is spun at high revolutions. Is there a program I can use to model the physics of the device?

For reference; there is a video of an invention on youtube which my design follows the same principal, they claim it can produce inertial propulsion but don't prove or really explain how. Their design spins the rotors electrically but mine are mechanically rotated at the exact same rate. The concept and theory is practically the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lka6d6DDBs

Angus
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  • Great, but what is your question? Are you asking for help modeling the physics, or for inputs on what experiments you can do with it, or for help in the design in terms of optimizing the performance? Please narrow down the question a bit. – John Alexiou Sep 26 '22 at 16:19
  • I am asking for help modelling and understanding the physics of this gyroscope and what it could be used for. – Angus Oct 14 '22 at 15:00
  • Please [edit] the question to focus on something specific and then it can be nominated for re-opening. See how to ask a good question. – John Alexiou Oct 14 '22 at 15:06
  • Thank you for improving the question, but sorry to say it's still not clear to me what exactly you want to know. – rfl Jan 08 '23 at 21:54
  • I want to know if this type of gyroscope would be more beneficial than a generic gyroscope that spins on one plane. Would my gyroscope that spins around 3 planes provide more stability or will the forces counteract each other? – Angus Jan 11 '23 at 05:27

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General rule for rotor design: for a given weight of the rotor try to put the mass towards the rim. That is: make most of the rotor thin, as thin as possible while still providing sufficient structural integrity, allocating mass to the rim.

As to whether a heavier rotor provides benefit:
Take the case of a spinning top. When you have a spinning top that is in precessing motion: the torque on the spinning top is due to the top's own weight. Making a spinning top heavier offers no benefit. The torque on the spinning top and the torque countering effect from the gyroscopic precession are both proportional to the mass of the spinning top, so there is no net gain.

It's a whole different matter when the gyro setup is not used to stabilize itself, but something else.

For luxury yachts there are large devices that use gimbal mounted gyro wheels to counteract roll of the ship. The gimbals of the gimbal mounted gyro wheels are moved with very strong actuators.

In that application the gyroscopic effect has to be strong enough. In harbour the bow wave of a passing ship tends to make other ships roll. The gyro stabilisation system can counteract that. The bigger the ship, the bigger the gyro wheels need to be in order to exert sufficent force.


I'm guessing the video with a device with nested rings, powered electrically, was a video showing the mechanical gyroscopes that were used onboard the Moon landing spacecrafts.

The bearings of the gimbals can never be perfectly frictionless. For the high accuracy demands of the spacecraft navigation the bearings had electric assistence. When the spacecraft would begin to move (due to thrusters being fired) there were sensors registering the motion of the gimbal relative to the gyro wheel and a small electric motor would provide some assistence, calibrated to precicely cancel out friction of the bearing. Without that canceling even the minute friction of the gimbal bearings would have an effect on the gyro wheel, slightly changing its orientation. The assistence kept the drift of the navigation gyro within specification.


As to how gyroscopic precession works:
There is a 2012 answer by me in which I discuss the mechanics of gyroscopic precession The discussion that I present there does not use the concept of angular momentum vector, nor does it use vector operations such as vector cross product. Instead the discussion capitalizes on symmetry.

Cleonis
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  • Thank you for your reply and advice on the rotor design. I still struggle to fully grasp why adding more weight wouldn't have a benefit. With centrifugal/petal force, the higher the spinning mass, the more force it creates, no?

    The video is of a gyroscope design that the inventors hoped would create inertial thrust, it doesn't look like they succeeded in that but it exhibits some interesting behaviour. Nothing related to the Moon landing spacecrafts.

     – Angus Oct 14 '22 at 14:56