What is Electromagnetic Suspension System?

Finite Element Analysis of Electromagnetic Motorised Absorber System

“Finite Element Analysis of Electromagnetic Motorised Absorber System” is my title for my FYP..actually, the basic concept that I need to know is the suspension system. By looking my title, the are word ‘motorized’. So it’s refer to the vehicle. Basic things that I need to know is about the vehicle suspension system. Novel suspension concepts are required, not only to improve the vehicle’s dynamic performance, but also to enhance the fuel economy by utilizing regeneration functions. In the other word, we want to improve the suspension system. Furthermore, if we want to improve  the system suspension, we need the development of new-generation suspension systems necessitate advanced suspension components, such as springs and dampers. So, the ultimate goal of my FYP is to conduct feasibility study of the development of electromagnetic dampers for automotive suspension system applications.

For your information, electromagnetic dampers are forging the way as a new technology in vibration isolation systems such as vehicle suspension system. Which means, this is a new development in suspension system. Based on journals that I already read, in the system of the suspension, there are three (3) suspension system. The first (1st) one is passive system. Secondly (2nd) is semi-active suspension systems and the last one is active suspension system.  The comparison between the three of them,they were proved that active suspension systems have superior performance in terms of ride comfort and road-handling performances compared to their passive and semi-active counterparts in automotive application.

Later I will story the design and development of a new electromagnetic damper as a customized linear permanent magnet actuator to be used in active suspension systems. So, if you all wanna know more, all of you must follow my blog until the end of my FYP..hehehe.. Now, let me tell more about electromagnetic. If we talk about active suspension system, we must set in mind, it is about electromagnetic...active suspension system-electromagnetic. My proposed electromagnetic damper has energy harvesting capability. Unlike commercial passive/semi-active dampers that convert the vibration kinetic energy into heat, the dissipated energy in electromagnetic dampers can be regenerated as useful electrical energy. Although demonstrating superb performance, active suspensions still have some issues that mus be overcome. They have high energy  consumption, weight, and cost and are not fail-safe in case of a power break-down. Since the introduction of the electromagnetic dampers, the challenge was to address these drawbacks. 

Because some of the weakness, hybrid electromagnetic dampers in this my FYP are potential solution to high weight, high cost, and fail-safety issues of an active suspension system. The hybrid electromagnetic damper utilizes the high performance of an active electromagnetic damper with the reliability of passive dampers in a single package, offering a fail-safe damper while decreasing weight and cost. So, two hybrid damper designs are proposed in my FYP.

If we think carefully, two hybrid damper design that I proposed in my FYP, there must be passive damping. Do you want to know why? It is demonstrated that the introduction of the passive damping can reduce power consumption and weight in an active automotive suspension system. The ultimate objective of my FYP1 is to employ existing suspension system and damper design knowledge together with new ideas from electromagnetic theories to develop new electromagnetic dampers. For the very first time, the eddy current damping effect is introduced for the automotive suspension applications.

To achieve the defined goals, numerical simulations, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using ANSYS software will be conducted. This simulation should be done by FYP2 but my supervisor want me do it in FYP1. Dr Razlan told me to get the drawing and graph if possible. Dr Razlan don't want to start the analysis at the next semester because many students will take a long time not to analysis, but to start analysis...I still not explore yet this ANSYS’s software because I'm right now focusing to write the methodologies.

What I did is only small portion of the growing research in automotive area, and it is hoped that the results obtained soon will lead to the realization of a safe and more superior automotive suspension system. Actually this electromagnetic suspension system is still a new thing in automotive suspension system. That’s all...this is a little bit about the introduction of my FYP that I can share to all of you..if you all wanna know in details about my FYP, wait for my next update..wait yaaaa!!