Variable Resistance Type Energy Regenerative Damper Using Pulse Width Modulated Step-up Chopper

Abstract

This paper describes a new technique for improving the damping property and efficiency of an energy regenerative damper. It is intended for a linear DC motor type vibration damper to regenerate vibration energy efficiently. Normally a regenerative damper can regenerate vibration energy only at high speed motion. For low speed motion, the damper has nonlinear characteristics with dead zone and cannot regenerate energy. In order to overcome this problem, a step-up chopper is introduced between the actuator and the charging circuit. The energy is regenerated from low speed and low voltage actuator to high voltage charging circuit. This paper also proposes a new control technique to the step-up chopper by using pulse width modulated signals. The damper can change its damping coefficient and the energy can be regenerated more efficiently. The proposed damper is applied to an active mass damper system. A simple experimental setup is used to validate the proposed technique. The results show an increase in performance and energy regeneration as compared to the previously proposed regenerative damper.