A Piezoelectric Regenerative Damper for Low-Frequency Application Available to Purchase

In this study, a design of a regenerative damper for low-frequency applications, such as vibration suppression of long period infrastructures, tanks and pipings, and maritime and offshore structures, is presented. In this design, the low-frequency input motion to the damper is transformed to a high-frequency motion of piezoelectric cantilever oscillators by mechanical switching, so that the input work into the damper during the loading phase induces the free vibration of the oscillator. The mechanical energy of the free vibration is converted to the electric energy by a high efficiency interfacing circuit. In this paper, a conceptual model is mathematically formulated and tested to evaluate the potential performance of the proposed idea. It is shown that the combination of the mechanical switching with a circuit switching interface technique can expect the enhancement of the energy regeneration efficiency up to 30%.