Development of regenerative shock absorber using the piezoelectric patch for electric vehicles

In the era of electric vehicles, a regenerative shock absorber can be equipped in the place of normal shock absorbers which continuously produces electricity and can be amplified and fed to the battery, a piezoelectric generator can be used that harvests mechanical vibrations energy available on an electric vehicle. The piezoelectric material can be placed in shock absorber housing above the piston head. Due to bumps and pits on road, continuous generation of electricity is possible. It can be then amplified and fed back to the battery regeneratively. The ۳D cad model of piezo housing was modelled and the force acting on the housing of piezoelectric materials was analyzed and found to be ۱۰۳.۵KN and equivalent power produced was calculated. Various Piezoelectric materials were studied and PZT ۵A was found to be the best to act as transducer and quartz was the best material to act as Actuator. A proof of concept developed showed the power produced by piezo material and comparison study of that with PZT ۵A was done and power produced was ۱۹J which is ۹\% of power produced by the charger of electric vehicles. The calculation for mileage showed an increase of ۳ km which is ۴\% of the maximum distance covered by the average electric bike.

Keywords:

Electric vehicle (EV’s) , Regenerative , Shock absorber , Transducer , Quartz , Actuator