Experimental Study on the Vortex Rate Gyro

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the vortex rate gyro configurations on the performance characteristics. The experiments were conducted using a V. R. gyro of which the vortex chamber diameter, and the chamber thickness and the sink tube configuration could be varied. The important factors --detecting factors of three kinds of pick off, optimum set position of the pick off hole etc. -- were measured through the alteration of various gyro configuration, and the angular momentum loss at the sink tube entrance was investigated by comparing the theoretical static characteristics with the experimental. In the experiments on the dynamic response, we obtained an empirical formula of the correction factor which modified the theoretical equation of the time constant in the V. R. gyro response.