Investigation of the long-term stability of a highly damped torsion balance
Abstract
It has been suggested that torsion balances with viscous liquid damping be used as spaceborne gravity gradiometers for measuring the gravity fields of the earth, moon and other planets. This paper presents experimental and theoretical results on the thermal instability of the zero point of a viscous-damped torsion balance. Such mechanisms of zero-point drift as steady state convection and Archimedes force are considered. It is shown that the balance can measure slow variations of gravity gradients even in the case of immersion of the sensitive part of the balance in the damping liquid.
- Publication:
-
Instruments for Inertial Gravimetry
- Pub Date:
- 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978iig..book...25O
- Keywords:
-
- Drift (Instrumentation);
- Gravity Gradiometers;
- Thermal Stability;
- Torsion;
- Viscous Damping;
- Convective Flow;
- Liquid Flow;
- Long Term Effects;
- Satellite-Borne Instruments;
- Wire;
- Instrumentation and Photography