A Boost-Type Power Converter for Energy-Regenerative Damping

This paper presents the development of an energy-regenerative damper consisting of a mass-spring system coupled with a permanent-magnet dc machine, power electronics converter, and a battery. The vibration energy induced in the mass-spring system is converted into battery charge through the dc machine and a power electronics controller. The latter is a pulse-width-modulated boost-type converter, which enforces a pseudoresistive behavior between its input terminals through a feedback control scheme developed in this study. Introducing this pseudoresistive behavior across the input terminals of the dc machine produces the same effect as a mechanical damper but with an energy-regenerative function. The dynamics of the mass-spring system coupled with the linear machine are used to obtain a condition for extracting maximum electric power from mechanical vibrations. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the performance of the regenerative damper using a small-scale suspension system test bed.