Investigation of direct-current brushed motor based energy regenerative automotive damper

Abstract

The focus of this project is to design, build and investigate the performance of a regenerative damper. Firstly, various literatures regarding the performance of a conventional hydraulic damper, various types of regenerative damper with pros and cons evaluated as well as the governing principle of electromagnetic induction were studied in depth. Next, the design process began by choosing the genre of regenerative damper, followed by the selection of essential components and design iteration loops for design optimization. CAE tools like SolidWorks and ANSYS were extremely useful in this stage. Subsequently, the design prototype was being manufactured. It was tested on a damper dyno, and results in terms of damping force, damping speed and regenerated electrical output were recorded. Further analysis and evaluation were conducted on the recorded data to relate to the numerical relations presented in the thesis. This project closed off with conclusions found and recommendation for future work.