Advanced Prototype of an Electrical Control Unit for an MR Damper Powered by Energy Harvested from Vibrations

Abstract

The work deals with a newly developed prototype of an electrical control unit (ECU) for a magnetorheological (MR) damper powered by energy harvested from vibrations. The ECU, consisting of a rectifying bridge, a driver unit, a microcontroller, and an internal power supply system, is an advanced version of the specially designed processing system for energy harvested from vibrations and the use of this energy to control the MR damper. Unlike a typical MR damper control system in which electrical circuits are powered from an external energy source, the ECU is powered by a part of the energy extracted from a vibrating system using an electromagnetic harvester. However, the excess amount of energy recovered over that necessary to power the MR damper and electrical circuits can be collected in harvested energy storage. The study presents the design concept of the ECU, computer simulations of the in-built driver unit (DU), the method of connecting the ECU with the harvester, the MR damper and displacement sensors, and also describes experimental tests of the engineered unit applied in a vibration reduction system (VRS) with an energy recovery function.