Regenerative magnetorheological dampers for vehicle suspensions
Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are promising for vehicle suspensions, by virtue of their adaptive properties. During the everyday use of vehicles, a lot of energy is wasted due to the energy dissipation by dampers under the road irregularities. On the other hand, extra batteries are required for the current MR damper systems. To reduce the energy waste and get rid of the dependence on extra batteries, in this paper, regenerative MR dampers are proposed for vehicle suspensions, which integrate energy harvesting and controllable damping functions. The wasted vibration energy can be converted into electrical energy and power the MR damper coil. A regenerative MR damper for vehicle suspensions is developed. Damping force and power generation characteristics of the regenerative MR damper were modeled and analyzed. Then the damper is applied to a 2 DOF suspension system for system simulation under various road conditions. Simulation results show that riding comfort can be significantly improved, while harvesting energy for other use in addition to supply power for the controlled MR damper.