Experimental study of a self-powered and sensing MR-damper-based vibration control system

Abstract

The paper deals with a semi-active vibration control system based on a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The study outlines the model and the structure of the system, and describes its experimental investigation. The conceptual design of this system involves harvesting energy from structural vibrations using an energy extractor based on an electromagnetic transduction mechanism (Faraday's law). The system consists of an electromagnetic induction device (EMI) prototype and an MR damper of RD-1005 series manufactured by Lord Corporation. The energy extracted is applied to control the damping characteristics of the MR damper.The model of the system was used to prove that the proposed vibration control system is feasible. The system was realized in the semi-active control strategy with energy recovery and examined through experiments in the cases where the control coil of the MR damper was voltage-supplied directly from the EMI or voltage-supplied via the rectifier, or supplied with a current control system with two feedback loops. The external loop used the sky-hook algorithm whilst the internal loop used the algorithm switching the photorelay, at the output from the rectifier. Experimental results of the proposed vibration control system were compared with those obtained for the passive system (MR damper is off-state) and for the system with an external power source (conventional system) when the control coil of the MR damper was supplied by a DC power supply and analogue voltage amplifier or a DC power supply and a photorelay.It was demonstrated that the system is able to power-supply the MR damper and can adjust itself to structural vibrations. It was also found that, since the signal of induced voltage from the EMI agrees well with that of the relative velocity signal across the damper, the device can act as a 'velocity-sign' sensor.

Evaluation of an energy harvesting mr damper-based Vibration reduction systemstem

“…This study recalls two former papers by the author, see Sapiński (2011Sapiński ( , 2014. The first work demonstrated that the developed MR damper-based vibration control system with energy harvesting capability (comprising a commercially available linear MR damper and an electromagnetic power generator prototype) was able to power-supply the MR damper whilst the generator served as a "velocity-sign" sensor.…”

Laboratory Testing of Velocity Sensing in a Magnetorheological Damper with Power Generation

“…(Li et al, 2013a(Li et al, , 2013b presented an innovative concept of a mechanical motion rectifier which converts bidirectional motion into unidirectional motion. This paper deals with velocity sensing of the MRD prototype and recalls three former works of the author (Sapiński, 2011, 2014, Sapiński et al, 2016). The study is organized as follows.…”

Conditioning Electronics in a Self-Powered Vibration Reduction System: Experimental Testing

“…Vibration reduction systems incorporating MR dampers and utilising the electromagnetic methods of energy recovery (Cho et al 2005, 2007, Sapiñski 2011, Jastrzêbski 2014 can effectively reduce the vibration of mechanical applications at near resonance frequencies. Besides, they do not require an external source of energy or energy storage strategy.…”

“…Besides, they do not require an external source of energy or energy storage strategy. Simulations of the energy balance (Snamina and Sapiñski 2011) and experimental tests (Sapiñski 2011, Jastrzêbski 2014 reveal that the amount of energy recovered from mechanical vibration by EPE is sufficient to power supply the MR damper coil. When compared to semiactive vibration reduction systems utilising MR dampers, they do not require any additional sensors or controllers.…”

“…This problem can be solved by transforming the recovered energy before it is fed to supply the MR damper coil. There are two alternative methods of transforming electric power, the first method involves the control of current intensity in the MR damper coil in accordance with the selected algorithm (Sapiñski 2011, Sapiñski et al 2011a, 2011b) whereby the coil is cyclically connected and disconnected to the electric power source (EPE). In the other solution a four-terminal network made of passive elements is provided between the EPE transducer coil and the MR damper coil.…”