Potential energy harvesting analysis and test on energy-regenerative suspension system

Passive suspension through a shock absorber converts the vibration energy in vehicles to thermal energy that is then is released into air, in order to reduce the vehicle's vibration. However, the energy-regenerative suspension can harvest part of this energy. It is thus significant to analyze the dissipated energy in order to estimate the potential of energy-regenerative suspension. In this paper, a quarter car model is built to research the suspension's dynamical displacement, dynamical velocity and recyclable energy. A road test is carried out to verify the simulation method. Meanwhile, the influence factors related to the potential vibration energy are analyzed, and the results show that the tire stiffness, road grade and vehicle velocity significantly impact the amount of recyclable energy. Throughout the analysis, it can be found that energy-regenerative suspension in the context of recyclable energy is appropriate for commercial vehicles. ©, 2015, Nanjing University of Aeronautics an Astronautics. All right reserved.