Title: Research on recycling vibration energy of shock absorber

Authors: Xin-Cheng Liang; Jing-Shan Zhao

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract: The service life of a shock absorber is reduced mainly by thermal fatigue resulting from the continuous vibration when driving on the road. Thermal failure mechanism and influence factors are studied in accordance with the structure of a two-tube shock absorber in this paper. The results show that heat energy is generated during the jounce and rebound of the wheel, and therefore the thermal failure is unavoidable for the traditional shock absorbers. A dynamic model of energy recycling prototype is built, and two primary functions are verified through the test rig. Compared with bench test data, simulation results are proved to be available to guide the design of the equipment to capture the vibration energy of the shock absorber, and simulations also demonstrate the feasibility of recycling the vibration energy.

Keywords: shock absorbers; vibration energy; energy recycling; ride comfort; simulation; thermal fatigue; thermal failure; heat energy; wheel jounce; wheel rebound; dynamic modelling; vehicle vibration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2015.071079

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2015 Vol.68 No.1/2/3, pp.201 - 220

Received: 30 May 2014
Accepted: 14 Dec 2014
Published online: 11 Aug 2015 *

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