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Boosting the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles by "harvesting" the energy generated by their shock absorbers and feeding it back into batteries or electrical systems such as air conditioning has become a major goal in automotive engineering. Now, a University of Huddersfield researcher has made a breakthrough by designing a new system and constructing a prototype that is ready for real-world testing.
Ruichen Wang carried out the project to obtain his doctorate at the University and has published his findings. The article, in the journal Energies, is titled Modelling, Testing and Analysis of a Regenerative Hydraulic Shock System. It provides a summary of current progress in the field of vehicle energy harvesting and a detailed account of the theory and the practical development of his device, designed for installation in a heavy good vehicle.
An abstract is available: DOI: 10.3390/en9050386
Why not also a stirling engine to make use of solar gain in parked cars on sunny days?
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:29AM
I would not have thought it very hard to implement, but the energy you would get out of it would be trivial compared with that being used by, say, the car engine. That's unless you live down a dirt road in the outback - but that would be a long way from Huddersfield.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday October 30 2016, @12:05PM
The engine does not exactly hiccup when I drive over potholes, and theres no free lunch, so obviously the power generated is deep in the error bars of MPG and performance.
A good model is a car mechanic's lift. So the total impact of a mile of interstate is one foot thats the same energy as lifting a car in a mechanics shop a foot, or by hand with a jack, in other words not much.
So LOL at the air conditioning unless you're merely trying to cool a small gerbil habitat from 76 to 75 degrees in the shade. On the other hand the suspension is right there out by the brakes so imagine every time you go over a bump a little puff of air blows water off the brakes. Of course at highway speeds the spinning of the wheel blows the brakes clean and dry and cool anyway, this would be more useful in parking lots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @01:13PM
Submitters or Editors could have done more research before posting this as a breakthrough, the concept is old and various attempts have been made to "harvest" the damper energy. Levant Power http://levantpower.com/site/trucking/ [levantpower.com] is one company that is still chasing the problem. They may have some sales to military vehicles but I'm not sure what keeps this company afloat?
This page is about their truck product which claims:
GenShock provides primary ride control for a truck axle through semi-active, regenerative capability. Regeneration from GenShock can reach up to 200W per axle, used to relieve alternator strain on the engine when pumping power. The amount of power is dependent on the road roughness. The semi-active control of GenShock allows the damper to stiffen and relax based on truck payload and road input to keep the wheels on the ground while dynamically adjusting to avoid harsh shocks transmitted to the chassis. Semi-active capability also allows for gross body movement control thereby enhancing ESC (electronic stability control) and improving safety of the vehicle.
In the context of a heavy truck, 200 watts isn't much, so the reason to pay for this expensive system has to be for the ride benefits of active damping.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:21PM
The point of this is as a replacement for the dampeners that shocks usually have.
I wouldn't expect to see much improvement in efficiency from this, but every little bit you can scavenge from things like braking and the shocks does make a difference over a large enough number of cars. The relevant question is like the GP asked, is this going to be good enough to justify installing.
It's definitely not good enough for a gas burning car, it might eventually be worthwhile for a hybrid or electric though.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:19PM
The point of a technology like this is that it could be used as a replacement or adjunct to the dampeners that people generally have in their shocks.
Shocks are supposed to absorb the impact of uneven road surfaces to keep the tires on the road and hopefully make for a smoother ride. However, since roads aren't generally even waves, you get the situation where the shocks may need to compress again at a time when they're moving downward resulting in a bit of jerk. Ideally you want them to return to normal relatively quickly so that they're ready to go again, but not so quickly that you've gotten no benefit out of it.
That's where dampeners come into things. They absorb the extra energy that's keeping the shocks vibrating and helps them return to normal after they react to a shock.
The relevant question here is going to be whether they can absorb enough energy to make it cost effective. With electric cars, these are a bit like regenerative braking in that they harvest back some of the energy that the motor has already expended.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:45PM
> ... a replacement or adjunct to the dampeners that people generally have in their shocks.
Not only have you been misled by popular (incorrect) descriptions of suspension, you also tripped one of my pet peeves:
dampen (dampener) - make damp or wet (something or someone that makes things wet)
damp (damper) - remove energy from a system (the device that damps)
For a more complete explanation, see Chapter 22 Dampers in this text http://www.millikenresearch.com/rcvd.html [millikenresearch.com]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Francis on Sunday October 30 2016, @05:50PM
First off, if you're too lazy to summarize your point, then don't bother to post. I'm not going to buy a book in the hopes of figuring out whatever your bullshit point is.
Secondly, yes, this is how shocks. You have some sort of spring and you have some method of dampening the spring. It could be a liquid system or it could be a torsion bar, but somehow you've got to remove that excess energy as the springs store energy with only some of it being lost in the process. Usually not enough to make for a practical shock absorber.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_absorber#Vehicle_suspension [wikipedia.org]
And lastly, dampen is a perfectly cromulent word and as such dampener is a completely acceptable word to be using as the verb form. A damper as commonly used is a part of a chimney.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dampen [merriam-webster.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @02:56AM
Well, the article you reference, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_absorber [wikipedia.org] does not include the word "dampen" -- it correctly uses "damp" for removing energy from a system (convert to heat) and "damper" for the device that does this.
The other thing this article does is describe more than one type of mechanical/hydraulic device as a "shock absorber", based on product names used during the pioneering days of cars.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday October 31 2016, @04:13AM
And you're point is what precisely? Damp and dampen are synonyms in this context as the dictionary indicates.
You still haven't actually backed any of your claims.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday October 30 2016, @05:21PM
I would not have thought it very hard to implement
Or expensive. Just a coil around a magnet moving in tandem with the shock absorber, and you have an alternator. I don't see it making much sense on a carbon car, but it would extend the battery before necessary recharge. I haven't done the math so have no idea if the energy generated is trivial or useful.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:34PM
Well here's my take. Let's say you're going down the interstate and every 1 second you hit an expansion joint that raises the car (one end at a time anyway) .01 meters. So if the car weighs 12,000N we multiply force by distance over time and get 120W. So maybe 1-1.5% of the power that the engine is producing to keep the car moving.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday October 31 2016, @11:10AM
Sounds like you have a lot of expansion joints around where you live. Fairly rare in the UK (where this news item is from) where roads are mostly tarmac.