EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC DAMPER

Vibration control of civil infrastructures using various damping devices has been extensively studied in the past three decades. Examples of such energy dissipation devices are friction dampers, buckling-restrained braces, metallic yield dampers, viscous fluid dampers, and other types of passive or semi-active dampers. Recently a novel class of damping devices, termed electromagnetic dampers, has received growing interest. This damping device can mitigate structural vibration by converting structural kinetic energy to electrical energy. Therefore, it provides energy harvesting instead of energy dissipation if the electrical energy is properly stored. In spite of the promise of this novel device, the feasibility study on using electromagnetic devices for both structural vibration control and energy harvesting can be rarely found. In light of this, this paper carried out an experimental study of electromagnetic dampers through a series of dynamic testing. Two major characteristics-vibration damping coefficient and energy harvesting efficiency-have been systematically investigated, in which the effects of frequencies, amplitudes and different energy harvesting circuits were taken into account. The experimental results are followed by a brief discussion of the feasibility of using electromagnetic dampers in civil infrastructures.