Right then. A friend of mine had an idea at work today. He was thinking about ways to generate energy, or something, and at any rate he asked me if it would be possible to generate energy by harnessing the up-and-down motion of shock absorbers. This would cause some resistance, of course, but that's exactly what you want in shock absorbers.
That got me thinking. If there was an electromagnet (permanent magnets probrably wouldn't work due to lower power levels, but maybe) on the "piston" part and a coil on the "sleeve" part, you could, in theory, do away with the gas chamber deal they've got going now and induce a current in the coil by the moving electromagnet. Of course, the electromagnet would probrably only be powered when the suspension was detected to be in motion, to save energy.
Anyways, this seems like a sound idea to me. However, I don't know how much energy may be recoverable in this manner. Also, there may be some manufacturing or other basic flaw in my thinking here. To that end, I'm posting the idea here looking for some feedback. Could this work, and/or would the amount of energy produced (assuming somewhat bumpy roads) be significant?
That got me thinking. If there was an electromagnet (permanent magnets probrably wouldn't work due to lower power levels, but maybe) on the "piston" part and a coil on the "sleeve" part, you could, in theory, do away with the gas chamber deal they've got going now and induce a current in the coil by the moving electromagnet. Of course, the electromagnet would probrably only be powered when the suspension was detected to be in motion, to save energy.
Anyways, this seems like a sound idea to me. However, I don't know how much energy may be recoverable in this manner. Also, there may be some manufacturing or other basic flaw in my thinking here. To that end, I'm posting the idea here looking for some feedback. Could this work, and/or would the amount of energy produced (assuming somewhat bumpy roads) be significant?