Design and Analysis of Electromagnetic Linear Actuation-Energy-Reclaiming Device Applied to a New-Type Energy-Reclaiming Suspension

Abstract

In order to meet the increasing demand for high-performance and high-efficiency vehicles, this paper proposes a novel electromagnetic linear energy-reclaiming suspension technology based on the McPherson independent suspension, and analyzes its core component—ELA-ERD (Electromagnetic Linear Actuation Energy-Reclaiming Device). ELA-ERD, taking a shock absorber piston rod as the inner yoke, has a compact structure and reasonable layout by integrating the structural features of the suspension. In this paper, the design process of ELA-ERD is elaborated in detail. Aiming at the problem of over-saturation of the inner yoke magnetic density, this paper proposes a method to optimize the magnetic circuit by increasing the size of the inner yoke within the effective working area of the moving coil, thus effectively improving the electromagnetic characteristics of ELA-ERD. Moreover, the effect and potential of energy reclaiming on ELA-ERD were studied by using finite element software. The study on the energy-reclaiming law of ELA-ERD was carried out from the perspective of the changes in vibration frequency and amplitude. In addition, the internal relationship between the energy-reclaiming voltage and the vibration velocity was revealed in this work, and the energy-reclaiming voltage coefficient Ke was defined. Through calculation of a large amount of model data, the Ke value applicable to the designed ELA-ERD in this paper was approximately set to 4.5. This study lays an important theoretical foundation for the follow-up studies.