A vibration energy recovery method with application to a semi-active suspension system

—This paper proposes a method to recover vibration energy from a semi-active suspension system which is composed by a magneto rheological damper in parallel with a power regeneration mechanism. Central to the concept is a parity-time-symmetric (PT symmetric) circuit that is capable of providing high efficiency transmission of power and minimizing electromagnetic damping force of the power regeneration mechanism. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the electromagnetic damping force of the power regeneration mechanism having little impact on suspension system and verify the possibility of energy recovery. The proposed control strategy pays close attention to inertial force of the power regeneration mechanism which produces indicator diagram hysteresis. To evaluate the performance brought about by the proposed method, the semi-active suspension utilizing the PT symmetric circuit is compared to the load resistance circuit. And the semi-active suspension system is implemented on a quarter car test bench to demonstrate its feasibility on a typical sine road surface. © 2021, Electromagnetics Academy. All rights reserved.