Study & Analysis on Regenerative Suspension as part of Hybrid Vehicle System

In general, this paper is related one of the working principles of hybrid vehicle systems. The development of hybrid vehicles can be assumed to be one of the most important advances in the automotive world today. It has been spurred on by a pressing requirement for the reduction in the environmental impact of land transport, especially regarding urban transport. Apart from all those main advantages of hybrid systems as listed in the project background section, there is also another potential way of recovering energy that would otherwise be lost while driving. Energy can also be recovered from the shock absorbers in a car suspension system itself. It is a process of recovering energy from damped, vibrating suspension system of a car. Environmental and energy issues have been the driving force to increase the quality of vehicle systems to preserve the environment and to further increase the efficiency of energy usage. The objective of the author’s project is to perform a study and analysis on regenerative suspension systems utilizing magnetic shock absorbers to harness those otherwise lost energy in a conventional vehicle suspension system. Firstly, the author looks into general information regarding regenerative suspensions. The author then focused more on the regenerative electromagnetic suspension system. In the second semester of this 2-semester project, the author compiled all the CAD drawings that have been modeled. The author initiated the parameters definition process to determine those needed important data of the system. After the author managed to determine all related parameters, the author performed simulations using the ADAMS/Car software to analyze the amount of vertical movements that a car’s suspension generates during different driving conditions. The author then proposed those equations that are being used to estimate the amount of regenerative energy that can be saved from those vertical movements as analyzed in ADAMS/Car.