Investigation of Vibrations Energy Harvesting from Passive Car Suspension Using Quarter Car Model Under Bump Excitation

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the voltage and the electrical power harvested from the car suspension system under bump excitation using a piezoelectric stack. For this purpose, a quarter car system equipped with a piezoelectric stack installed parallel to the suspension's damper is modelled and investigated in temporal domain using MATLAB/Simulink. The studied system is excited, considering different bump amplitudes to evaluate the harvested voltage and power at different speeds. The effect of the suspension's damping coefficient on the harvested voltage and power is also studied and quantified.