Vibration Energy Harvesting Damper in Vehicle Suspension

The road roughness is one of the main sources of a severe undesired vehicle vibration. The vehicle suspensions are the front lines of defense protecting the passengers and vehicle equipment from harsh vibrations caused by the ground road roughness. The recent tendency is to combine the process of vibration mitigation and additional electrical power generation. It allows scavenge the power from a vehicle’s vibrations and convert these vibrations into electrical power for use in vehicle systems. New Vibration Energy Harvesting Damper (VEHD) is based on author’s US Patents and consists of two main components: Tuned Mass Damper with automatic self-tuning properties and Generator of Electricity. The analysis of dynamical performance and effectiveness of developed rectilinear VEHD for Jeep Sport Wrangler vehicle suspensions is presented. Mathematical model of dynamical behavior is developed and the simulation analysis illustrates the direction of optimal parameter’s selection for getting VEHD with minimal mass. Test results demonstrate the efficiency of proposed VEHD and some new opportunities for their applications in vehicle suspensions.