Influence of Temperature Variation on the Vibrational Characteristics of Fused Silica Cylindrical Resonators for Coriolis Vibratory Gyroscopes

The fused silica cylindrical resonator is a type of axisymmetric resonator that can be used for Coriolis vibratory gyroscopes. Although the resonant frequency, frequency mismatch, and Q factor are natural properties of the resonator, they can change with temperature. Therefore, the temperature drift severely limits the detection accuracy and bias stability of the gyroscope. In this paper, the influence of temperature variation on the vibrational characteristics of fused silica cylindrical resonators was investigated. Experiments were performed on a fused silica cylindrical resonator coated with Cr/Au films. It was shown that at the temperature range from 253.15 K to 353.15 K, the resonant frequency linearly increased with temperature, the frequency mismatch remained unchanged, and the Q factor gradually increased till about 333.15 K, when it began to decrease. Meanwhile, the change of thermoelastic damping with temperature may dominate the variation of Q factor at the temperature range from 253.15 K to 353.15 K. This phenomenon was theoretically analyzed and the variation trends of results were consistent with the theoretical analysis. This study indicates that, for the fused silica cylindrical resonator, to discover the influence of temperature variation on the resonant frequency, frequency mismatch, and Q factor, there are certain rules to follow and repeat. The relationship between temperature and frequency can be established, which provides the feasibility of using self-calibration based on temperature characteristics of the resonator for temperature drift compensations. Additionally, there is an optimum temperature that may improve the performance of the Coriolis vibratory gyroscope with the fused silica cylindrical resonator.