Collecting the kinetic energy dissipated through suspension

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"We're collecting the kinetic energy dissipated through suspension travel to power onboard electronics such as LED lighting and cellphone charging. By using a drawstring activated dynamo, similar to the pullstart on a lawnmower, a mechanical clutch engages the dynamo, which in turn charges a set of rechargeable batteries connected to a blinkie light."
[youtube]SGw_Zws7598[/youtube]

tks
lock
 
Put a big enough generator with a big enough load on it, and you could just put gear tracks on your suspension fork instead of having springs in it. Use a planetary reduction or similar between the tracks and the generator input.

Technically you'd need to use an alternator, since it would need to be able to generate power the same either direction it was spun, so that the rebound would be dampened by it and it would not generate a negative voltage as it rolled back. Otherwise you'd need to clutch it somehow, and let the rebound energy just go into mechanical loss.
 
http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/mit-energy-recovering-shock-absorbers.html
 

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graemebc said:
http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/mit-energy-recovering-shock-absorbers.html
Click to expand...

Tks graemebc... Pretty sure I recall seeing a Youtube vid w/similar tech in a car from Mercedes/whatever... Levant makes a great case but no mention of any actual sales. Lots of news about awards... Commercialization takes time perhaps. I'm thinkin' it's like regen where significant payback only comes from decellerating larger mass. Levant makes the point too that the military can pay multiples for gas versus what civilians pay at the pumps. Can't say whether Levant is just chasing the money (military budgets) or whether gains for small vehicles (eg ebikes) is vanishingly small...
Lock
 
It will take time for the tech to filter down to smaller applications. depends how much of a lie peak oil production reserves actually are I guess.
If its like any other company in the automotive industry that makes it huge, it will be all about margins (theirs & the company using their product to reduce their costs) and less about making a real difference to the end user. IE food distro companies will not lower prices even if they save 40 % on transport costs. Money & ideology do not good bed partners make...
 
Regenerative suspension + active suspension = awesomeness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw
 
More work in a similar vein seen here:
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_arti...-help-refine-electricity-generating-backpack/

Power while you walk: Navy researchers to help refine electricity-generating backpack
Posted by John Keller
ARLINGTON, Va., 7 March 2010. U.S. Navy researchers are continuing work to develop a quiet, lightweight backpack that generates electricity by tapping into the up-and-down energy people generate when they walk.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va., is negotiating a phase-two Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract with Lightning Packs LLC in Strafford, Pa., to reduce the weight of a backpack able to generate electricity the company has developed, and reduce noise the backpack makes when it generates electric power.

The Suspended Load Backpack can generate as much as 7.4 Watts of electricity when the wearer is walking --
Click to expand...

Lightning Packs LLC:
http://www.lightningpacks.com/index.html

walker.jpg
 
We must fight the inexorable pull of entropy wherever we can! Who's with me!! :twisted:

No more dissipating energy directly to heat. Oil based friction dampers are UNCIVILIZED! And while we're at it, we must integrate our fridges with HVAC system. And the oven too for good measure.


Hehe. Don't take my jesting as sarcasm. This is a cool idea, and should definitely be done.
 
Dear lock

This is my idea I would like to share with you, I hope it will help you some how. I always thought about trying it practically but I didn’t get the time to do it.
This is a coil which is suspended by soft springs (with a stationary magnets in between) so you don’t need a bumpy ride to get some current. Even on straight road, you might get some as the arm is extended farther to make it porn to absorb and amplify any movement.
It is just an idea, you could modify it further.

Thanks
Naeem
 

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Hi Naeem

...none of these are my projects. I'm just enjoying seeing folks experimenting with the concept! In the video imbedded in the first post the bike guys comment later in their video that they did try initially with magnet and coil, but they don't say why they abandoned this approach? Interesting then that the backpack folks also went with the dynamo spun by linkage... I actually like the magnet plus coil approach too. For your example I would swap things around and bounce the magnet in the coil so the coil wires/electrical path wouldn't need any sort of sliding etc connection, but your thought for leverage is a good one I'm sure! Maybe mount the generator at the tail end of a rear fender with some give/bounce designed into the fender... But at this point I'm not sure it would be energy "harvesting" replacing the energy lost in suspension or actually causing suspension to work harder... somehow requiring more energy from the batteries. I'll guess a rim or hub generator has far greater output, but at a direct cost of energy from the batteries or the riders food energy when you can't take advantage of regen or downhill gravity.

Cheers
Lock
 
the concept is sound, and as easy as those flashlights you shake to recharge.
Implimentation would be simple enough if needed.

The easiest would be to add a high power magnet to the piston end of a conventional shock, then add a wire coil to the outside of the shock body. A simple Linier generator.

An improved Idea would be to remove all hudrolic fluid and dampen the ride only with magnetic flux, but the mass needed would become a problem for anything in the pasanger car sized world.

I hybrid could be made using a generator driven by an impeller that is driven by the hydrolic fluid pushed out of the shock.
 
Hey everyone!

I was just wondering, would the energy scavenged from the kinetic movement of the suspension system actually be worth the extra weight you'd be carrying around in order for the equipment to function?

In other words, if a normal strut weights, for example, 5Kg's, and one of these energy-recovering units weighs, say, 8Kg's, would that extra 3Kg's per axle be worth carrying around just to power the on-board LED lighting etc?

What do you guys reckon?

Dean.
 
Would depend on three things... How reliable the extra components are (maintenance costs), how much energy is recovered, and whether the extra components affect performance of the vehicle in any other negative or positive way. Extra weight is always a negative that needs to be offset with other gains.
Lock
 
http://iopscience.iop.org/0964-1726/19/4/045003/
Design and characterization of an electromagnetic energy harvester for vehicle suspensions
Lei Zuo , Brian Scully , Jurgen Shestani and Yu Zhou
Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
Abstract During the everyday usage of an automobile, only 10–16% of the fuel energy is used to drive the car—to overcome the resistance from road friction and air drag. One important loss is the dissipation of vibration energy by shock absorbers in the vehicle suspension under the excitation of road irregularity and vehicle acceleration or deceleration. In this paper we design, characterize and test a retrofit regenerative shock absorber which can efficiently recover the vibration energy in a compact space. Rare-earth permanent magnets and high permeable magnetic loops are used to configure a four-phase linear generator with increased efficiency and reduced weight. The finite element method is used to analyze the magnetic field and guide the design optimization. A theoretical model is created to analytically characterize the waveforms and regenerated power of the harvester at various vibration amplitudes, frequencies, equilibrium positions and design parameters. It was found that the waveform and RMS voltage of the individual coils will depend on the equilibrium position but the total energy will not. Experimental studies of a 1:2 scale prototype are conducted and the results agree very well with the theoretical predictions. Such a regenerative shock absorber will be able to harvest 16–64 W power at 0.25–0.5 m s − 1 RMS suspension velocity.
Click to expand...

seen here:
http://www.physorg.com/news188035494.html
In a recent study, Professor Lei Zuo, Brian Scully, Jurgen Shestani, and Yu Zhou, all mechanical engineers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, have designed and tested a retrofit regenerative shock absorber that recovers a vehicle's vibrational energy. The researchers built a 1:2 scale prototype of the regenerative shock absorber, and demonstrated its ability to harvest 2-8 watts of power during typical driving conditions at a speed of about 45 mph. They predict that a full-scale system on a four-wheel car should be able to recover up to 256 watts under these driving conditions.

“For typical driving conditions, we are predicting the ability to harvest approximately 64 watts per wheel, for a total of approximately 256 watts,” Zuo told PhysOrg.com. “This value increases considerably when the system is used on irregular roads.”

The purpose of the shock absorber in a vehicle's suspension system is to reduce the vehicle’s vibration by dissipating the vibrational energy. About 10 years ago, researchers began looking into recovering the vibrational energy using various magnetic devices. In general, these systems work by first absorbing the kinetic energy of suspension vibration between the wheel and a sprung mass, and then converting that energy into useful electric power.

Zuo and his team’s shock absorber consists of two tube-like components: a smaller magnetic tube slides inside a larger, hollow coil tube. The coil component is made of copper coils wound around a plastic delrin tube, while the magnetic component is made of ring-shaped magnets separated by ring-shaped magnetically permeable spacers. The magnets are aligned with like-poles facing each other to produce a radially emitted magnetic flux. The magnetic tube is also surrounded by a high magnetically permeable material in order to further “pull” the magnetic flux outward. As Zuo explained, having a high magnetic flux is key to the design.

“The power we regenerate is proportional to the square of the magnetic flux across the coils,” he said. “Therefore, if we increase the flux by two times, the peak power output will increase by four times.”
Click to expand...
 
I suggest review of Piezoelectricity

  • When you speak into a phone you are using Piezoelectricity to transfer mechanical-acoustical energy into low-current voltage that is transferred from Point-A to -B. Vehicle dampening could follow a similar sort of function instead of converting the mechanical energy into into waste-heat during the compression of the medium albeit air or hydraulic fluid. The challenge is to size a piezo-device or devices to respond within the desired frequency range.
  • A second method is to employ a small air-turbine wherein the shock-absorbing piston pumps air into a small register that feeds a small turbine-generator.
  • A third method could be a rack and pinion setup wherein the rack provides the mechanical pump action to a forward-clutched momentum wheel that in turn drives a generator.
In all piezo-devices have the least moving parts.

What is fascinating is the scale upon which these principles can be applied. Imagine the power that can be harvested from a skyscraper swaying in the wind through motion-dampening!
 
Hi,

Interesting Post, I wondered how you would harvest/store the electricity from the Piezo Transducer? Someone I know suggested a diode pump but wondered if you have any ideas or circuit diagrams as I am Interested in using the technology for a project.

Cheers
 
dozentrio said:
We must fight the inexorable pull of entropy wherever we can! Who's with me!! :twisted:

No more dissipating energy directly to heat. Oil based friction dampers are UNCIVILIZED! And while we're at it, we must integrate our fridges with HVAC system. And the oven too for good measure.


Hehe. Don't take my jesting as sarcasm. This is a cool idea, and should definitely be done.
Click to expand...


You know, some time ago I was watching a heavy door being pushed open and slamming shut. I thought that somehow, that energy should be stored when it was shutting. All 20 watts/second of it. :D
 
Kingfish said:
I suggest review of Piezoelectricity

  • When you speak into a phone you are using Piezoelectricity to transfer mechanical-acoustical energy into low-current voltage that is transferred from Point-A to -B. Vehicle dampening could follow a similar sort of function instead of converting the mechanical energy into into waste-heat during the compression of the medium albeit air or hydraulic fluid. The challenge is to size a piezo-device or devices to respond within the desired frequency range.
  • A second method is to employ a small air-turbine wherein the shock-absorbing piston pumps air into a small register that feeds a small turbine-generator.
  • A third method could be a rack and pinion setup wherein the rack provides the mechanical pump action to a forward-clutched momentum wheel that in turn drives a generator.
In all piezo-devices have the least moving parts.

What is fascinating is the scale upon which these principles can be applied. Imagine the power that can be harvested from a skyscraper swaying in the wind through motion-dampening!
Click to expand...

Hello Kingfish,

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, imagining collecting the kinetic energy from whole forests of trees, blowing in the wind. Think of it, the forests could provide the means to help save our world!

Gary
 
Starson said:
Hello Kingfish,

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, imagining collecting the kinetic energy from whole forests of trees, blowing in the wind. Think of it, the forests could provide the means to help save our world!

Gary
Click to expand...

The world around us is a big mystery waiting to be solved! By taking small steps as individuals we can affect the larger picture. So in essence the method you proscribe would work beautifully! 8)

It need not be limited to forests per se; imagine mechanical reeds-in-the-wind bending to and fro across desert plains, the simple action of waves passing along a quiet stretch of harbor, the turbulent action of a babbling brook twisting through a series of vortices.

Passive energy pervades our lives naturally. We just need to find the best non-destructive method of employing it. Piezos are a way to hook into that natural vibe, not by stealing all the thunder but more like riding the wave: Energy surfing.

~KF
 
Hook up a bunch of strings thru pulleys around all the trees to a single camshaft setup on a generator, so that the individual tugs are all summed up into smooth mechanical motion to run a generator or alternator.

Or, affix piezo strips vertically on the trees so the bending action generates electricity directly, and use it to power micro-sized devices directly from them (tiny signal repeaters, computers, etc).
 
I did once see a wind powered washing machine. It was by tying a slack cable between two trees and in the center of that cable was attached a pole that went down to the barrel with the clothes in it. When the wind blows the swaying trees tighten and the pole goes up and down acting as a plunger. I can't wait till I have some land of my own to implement one of my own. Wind power without electricity is a beautiful thing.
 
Has anyone posted anything on shock absorbers that have energy harvesting capabilities?

Something similar to this but for a bike instead of a car.

http://blogs.discovery.com/files/energy-harvesting-shock-absorber-june-2011.pdf

I think it would work best for off road mountain bikes. Just wondering if anyone else has looked into this to improve range.

Thanks

Tim
 
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