Even on a perfectly smooth road there must be a lot of energy wasted in conventional shock absorbers, whenever you accelerate, brake, go round a bend... If it's of the order of 1 kW or even 100W on average, then Jeff is right that it's certainly worth recovering!
Has anyone checked whether Michelin's Active Wheel did recover this shock (or more generally suspension oscillation damping) energy? I know it features two in-wheel electric motors, one for traction, one for active suspension. The traction motor also works as a generator for regenerative braking, I wouldn't be surprised if the active suspension motor was capable of energy recovery too. Michel 2009/5/9 Kyle Mcallister <[email protected]>: > > > --- Jeff Fink <[email protected]> wrote: > >> About a year or two ago Kyle, you jumped all over my >> idea of harnessing the >> power wasted in automobile shock absorbers. Check >> out the June 09 Popular >> Science, page 48. > > Don't have it in front of me, but a little Googling > turns up some things. 1kW of power is suggested over a > 'standard stretch of road.' I don't know what that is, > specifically, but: > > The bumpier the road, the more you get from the shock > BACK, but the more you waste engine-wise. A suggestion > was also made to have power-collecting speedbumps > generate power to run streetlights. All sounds great, > but...TANSTAAFL! You're simply consuming more power > from the auto's engine, to be 'liberated' by the > municipality for their lights. Not the mention, > beating the car's suspension out from under it. > > Also, I can replace gas shocks in my car for about $18 > per shock. My boss drives a Mercedes Benz S500. Each > shock (there are four) is $1700. They fail regularly, > also. I would be interested to know how much > energy-harvesting shocks would cost the consumer. > > There are a lot of 'good ideas' out there, but > implementation and the realities that follow are never > what is originally expected or intended. > > Anyhow, whenever I come across the magazine itself, I > will look and see what it says. As for right now, I'm > gonna go build me-self a Mylow motor, and see what it > does. 99%, it won't work. But hey...? > > --Kyle > > > > >
