Utilization of vibration energy from vehicle using smart damper

Abstract

Harvesting of mechanical vibration energy recently is a popular idea, but its implementation is still limited due to real size of harvesters and efficiency of the systems. Here provided an idea and realization of smart shock absorber with smart liquid, able to generate electric energy from vehicle suspension excitation and thus damping vehicle vibrations. Linear types of electric generators are not very efficient due to limited stroke, therefore their efficiency of energy transformation is far from ideal. This paper provides experimental research of energy harvesting efficiency using smart liquid core, magnetic core and ferromagnetic core of shock absorber. Comparison of these materials in the shock absorber provides clear ability to use smart liquid as ferromagnetic core in the process of power generating. Such device proves possibility to be implemented in the vehicle suspension and allows power-damping control as well as data transmission energy request. Generated power and its dependency from excitation frequency provided in the result graphs.