A Preliminary Study of Energy Recovery in Vehicles by Using Regenerative Magnetic Shock Absorbers

Road vehicles can expend a significant amount of energy in undesirable vertical motions that are induced by road bumps, and much of that is dissipated in conventional shock absorbers as they dampen the vertical motions.

Presented in this paper are some of the results of a study aimed at determining the effectiveness of efficiently transforming that energy into electrical power by using optimally designed regenerative electromagnetic shock absorbers. In turn, the electrical power can be used to recharge batteries or other efficient energy storage devices (e.g., flywheels) rather than be dissipated. The results of the study are encouraging - they suggest that a significant amount of the vertical motion energy can be recovered and stored.