Self-Powered Magnetorheological Dampers

This study addresses the feasibility and effectiveness of a self-powered magnetorheological (MR) damper using in-situ energy harvested from the vibration and shock environment in which it is deployed. To achieve this, an energy-harvesting device is designed and added to a MR damper. This energy-harvesting device consists of a stator, a permanent magnet, and a spring and operates as an energy-harvesting dynamic vibration absorber (DVA). The dynamic equation for the self-powered MR damper is derived. To evaluate the vibration isolation capability of the self-powered MR damper, a single-degree-of-freedom engine mount system using the MR damper is simulated. The governing equation of motion for the engine mount system is derived. A parametric study is conducted to find the optimal stiffness of the energy-harvesting DVA for the engine mount system. The isolation performance of the engine mount system employing the self-powered MR damper is theoretically evaluated in the frequency domain. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3142882]