Self-powered hybrid electromagnetic damper for cable vibration mitigation

This paper presents the design and the application of a new self-powered hybrid electromagnetic damper that can harvest energy while mitigating the vibration of a structure. The damper is able to switch between an energy harvesting passive mode and a semi-active mode depending on the amount of energy harvested and stored in the battery. The energy harvested in the passive mode resulting from the suppression of vibration is employed to power up the monitoring and electronic components necessary for the semi-active control. This provides a hybrid control capability that is autonomous in terms of its power requirement. The proposed hybrid circuit design provides two possible options for the semi-active control: without energy harvesting and with energy harvesting. The device mechanism and the circuitry that can drive this self-powered electromagnetic damper are described in this paper. The parameters that determine the device feasible force-velocity region are identified and discussed. The effectiveness of this hybrid damper is evaluated through a numerical simulation study on vibration mitigation of a bridge stay cable under wind excitation. It is demonstrated that the proposed hybrid design outperforms the passive case without external power supply. It is also shown that a broader force range, facilitated by decoupled passive and semi-active modes, can improve the vibration performance of the cable.