• Energy Research

The advantages of the proposed novel magnetic energy-harvesting suspension (MEHS) are high safety, compact structure and convenient maintenance, compared with the previous studies. However, the force generated by the energy harvester with harvesting energy can affect the motion of the mechanical system. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the ride comfort and road handling of the MEHS, and investigates the dynamic performance of the MEHS. Firstly, the structure and the working principle of the MEHS are illustrated and introduced, and the dynamic mechanism of the quarter-vehicle with the MEHS is revealed and investigated. Secondly, the effects of the electromechanical coupling coefficient and external load resistance on the dynamic performance are investigated by numerical calculation. An experimental setup is established to verify the dynamic performance of the proposed MEHS. According to the experimental results, the dynamic performance of the suspension is contradictory with the increase of the external load resistance at the periodic frequency 7 Hz. And compared with the passive suspension, the dynamic performance of the MEHS is changed at various excitations, in which the sprung displacement and relative dynamic load of the tire of MEHS at the periodic frequency 3.3 Hz are reduced by 39.45% and 41.18%, respectively. Overall, the external load resistance of the proposed MEHS can be utilized to realize the variable damping of the suspension system and reduce the effect of vibration on the suspension system at the resonance frequency. And the dynamic performance has been verified in the laboratory, which lays the foundation for the dynamic analysis in a real vehicle.

Abstract The application of the power generated by the proposed magnetic energy-harvesting suspension (MEHS) is to power a wireless sensor in the MEHS. In this paper, the generated powers of the MEHS at various excitations have been theoretically analyzed and experimentally validated. Firstly, the dynamic mechanism of the proposed MEHS is revealed and investigated. Secondly, the analysis expression of energy harvesting is obtained to find the related variables that affect the energy harvesting, and the influence parameters on the energy harvesting characteristics are analyzed numerically. The experimental tests are carried out to verify the numerical analysis and investigate the effect of various excitations and external load resistances on the energy harvesting characteristics. Experimental results demonstrate that the maximum output power of the MEHS can be obtained by changing the excitation frequency, excitation amplitude and external load resistance. Furthermore, the peak output power is generated when the excitation frequency is equal to the natural frequency, and the generated peak output power is 0.34 W at the excitation frequency 3.3 Hz. Meanwhile, the self-powered sensing experiments of the MEHS have been successfully verified in the laboratory, which lays the foundation for further application in a real vehicle.