Vibration Control and Energy-Regenerative Performance Analysis of an Energy-Regenerative Magnetorheological Semi-Active Suspension

To improve both ride comfort and energy efficiency, this study proposes a semi-active suspension system equipped with an electromagnetic linear energy-regenerative magnetorheological damper (ELEMRD). The ELEMRD integrates a magnetorheological damper (MRD) with a linear generator. A neural network-based surrogate model was employed to optimize the key parameters of the linear generator for better compatibility with semi-active suspensions. A prototype was fabricated and tested. Experimental results show that with an excitation current of 1.5 A, the prototype generates a peak output force of 1415 N. Under harmonic excitation at 5 Hz, the no-load regenerative power reaches 11.1 W and 37.3 W at vibration amplitudes of 5 mm and 10 mm, respectively. An energy-regenerative magnetorheological semi-active suspension model was developed and controlled using a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). Results indicate that, on a Class C road at 20 m/s, the proposed system reduces sprung mass acceleration and suspension working space by 14.2% and 7.5% compared to a passive suspension. The root mean square and peak regenerative power reach 49.8 W and 404.2 W, respectively. The proposed semi-active suspension also exhibits enhanced low-frequency vibration isolation, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving ride quality while achieving energy recovery.