Conventional hydraulic dampers reduce vehicle vibration by converting the vibration energy into heat. In addition to wasting energy, the fixed damping characteristics of these dampers cannot adapt to different road conditions. As we know, a suspension with tunable damping provides a more comfortable ride. However, previous works regarding tunable regenerative dampers, which usually consist of a single generator, have some shortcomings, including wasted energy and a limited range of tunable damping. With these problems in mind, a new design principle with multiple controlled transducers is discussed in this article. By controlling the number of switched on transducers and adjusting the value of the external resistance, the damping characteristics can be fine-tuned according to the requirements. With this new design principle, a regenerative damper cannot only tune the damping behavior over a broader range but also harvest as much vibration energy as possible. The design principle was verified by building and testing two different prototypes. The experimental results showed that these two dampers could achieve nearly linear turning of the damping coefficient and harvest more electrical power from vibrations than other type of energy-harvesting dampers.

中文翻译：

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从车辆减震器收集能量

传统的液压阻尼器通过将振动能量转化为热量来减少车辆振动。除了浪费能量之外，这些减震器的固定减震特性无法适应不同的路况。众所周知，具有可调阻尼的悬架提供了更舒适的乘坐体验。然而，先前关于可调节的再生阻尼器的工作通常由单个发电机组成，存在一些缺点，包括能量浪费和可调节的阻尼范围有限。考虑到这些问题，本文讨论了具有多个受控换能器的新设计原理。通过控制打开的换能器的数量并调整外部电阻的值，可以根据要求微调阻尼特性。有了这个新的设计原理，再生阻尼器不仅可以在更宽的范围内调节阻尼性能，而且还可以收集尽可能多的振动能量。通过构建和测试两个不同的原型，验证了设计原理。实验结果表明，与其他类型的能量收集阻尼器相比，这两个阻尼器可以实现阻尼系数的几乎线性转动，并从振动中获取更多的电能。