Energy conversion mechanism and regenerative potential of vehicle suspensions

Vehicle suspension vibration can cause damping oil temperature-rise, which further effects the suspension performance, rapids the suspension failure, and goes against the vehicle fuel efficiency. This paper focuses on the suspension vibration energy conversion mechanism and energy harvest potential analysis. A mathematical model is developed to characterize the oil temperature-rise and damping force change which is then verified by experimental tests. Both simulation and test results show that the damping oil temperature rises with the excitation time and damping force decreases as the oil temperature rises. The equilibrium temperature almost reaches to 105 °C under sinusoidal excitation with 0.52 m/s maximum speed, and the damping force decreases significantly when the temperature rises from −20 °C to 100 °C. Then the energy flow of regenerative suspension system is analyzed and the suspension energy regenerate potential is explored based on the quarter vehicle model and road roughness model. The model simulation results show that vehicles with large mass, relatively high driving speed, and bad driving conditions have a good application prospect for the regenerative suspension systems.