Design, analysis and prototyping of a magnetic energy-harvesting suspension for vehicles

Abstract

With the development of electric vehicles, the energy harvesters of vehicle’s suspensions have been widely investigated. However, most of the existing energy harvesters have replaced the original damper of the suspensions, which reduces vehicle safety. This paper proposes a magnetic energy-harvesting suspension (MEHS) for vehicles, with the advantages of high vehicle safety and a compact structure, which consists of a passive suspension and a harvester. In this paper, the working principle and the structure of the MEHS are introduced. To better analyze the magnetic field, the magnetic flux circuit model is established by combining the magnetic field division method with the magnetic equivalent circuit model. Furthermore, a dynamic model for a two-degree-of-freedom quarter-vehicle with the MEHS is built to analyze the energy-harvesting characteristics and the damping characteristics. A prototype of the quarter-vehicle that is considering the tire stiffness, is designed and manufactured, and the performances are investigated by simulations and experiments with different frequencies, external resistances and amplitudes. The experimental results indicate that the harvested peak power of the MEHS is 1.08 W with a sinusoidal input of 10 Hz and 2 mm. Moreover, the maximum energy-harvesting efficiency of the prototype reaches 67% at the sinusoidal input of 6 Hz and 2 mm. The harvested energy of the MEHS can power some electrical equipment of vehicles.