Design, Simulation, and Experimental Validation of a Balanced Adaptive Electromagnetic Suspension for Kinetic Energy Harvesting

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the design, simulation, and experimental validation of a novel electromagnetic regenerative suspension system. Conventional vehicular suspensions, while crucial for ride comfort and handling, dissipate a substantial amount of kinetic energy as waste heat, often amounting to 10-16% of total fuel energy in urban driving conditions. This study addresses this inefficiency by proposing a semi-active linear electromagnetic suspension system capable of converting vertical vibrational energy into usable electrical power. The core innovation lies in a "Balanced Adaptive" control strategy, which is designed to navigate the fundamental trade-off between maximizing energy harvesting and maintaining acceptable ride comfort. A detailed two-degree-of-freedom quarter-vehicle model was developed and simulated to evaluate the system's performance against conventional passive and aggressive adaptive systems. Simulation results demonstrate that the Balanced Adaptive system achieves a 92.6% increase in harvested energy over a passive system while limiting the negative impact on ride comfort to a manageable 13.8% increase in root-mean-square (RMS) acceleration. To validate the physical feasibility of the proposed architecture, a lab-scale prototype was constructed and subjected to a series of tests under varying conditions. Experimental data confirms the system's ability to generate meaningful power, with outputs reaching up to 0.98 mW under high-mass and high-frequency excitation. This dual-method approach, combining a robust simulation with empirical prototype validation, represents a significant step forward in developing practical and commercially viable kinetic energy harvesting solutions for modern vehicles