1.
Introduction:
A Hyperloop is a proposed mode of passenger and/or freight transportation, first used to
describe an open-source vactrain design released by a joint team from Tesla and SpaceX.
Drawing heavily from Robert Goddard's vactrain, a hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes
through which a pod may travel free of air resistance or friction conveying people or objects at
high speed while being very efficient.
Elon Musk's version of the concept, first publicly mentioned in 2012, incorporates reduced-
pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on air bearings driven by linear induction
motors and axial [Link] Hyperloop Alpha concept was first published in August 2013,
proposing and examining a route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay
Area, roughly following the Interstate 5 corridor. The paper conceived of a hyperloop system
that would propel passengers along the 350-mile (560 km) route at a speed of 760 mph (1,200
km/h), allowing for a travel time of 35 minutes, which is considerably faster than current rail or
air travel times. Preliminary cost estimates for this LA–SF suggested route were included in the
white paper—US$6 billion for a passenger-only version, and US$7.5 billion for a somewhat
larger-diameter version transporting passengers and vehicles although transportation analysts had
doubts that the system could be constructed on that budget; some analysts claimed that the
Hyperloop would be several billion dollars over budget, taking into consideration construction,
development, and operation [Link] Hyperloop concept has been explicitly "open-sourced" by
Musk and SpaceX, and others have been encouraged to take the ideas and further develop them.
To that end, a few companies have been formed, and several interdisciplinary student-led teams
are working to advance the technology. SpaceX built an approximately1-mile-long (1.6 km)
subscale track for its pod design competition at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Figure 1.1 Hyperloop
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[Link]:
The general idea of trains or other transportation traveling through evacuated tubes dates
back more than a century, although the atmospheric railway was never a commercial success.
Musk first mentioned that he was thinking about a concept for a "fifth mode of transport", calling
it the Hyperloop, in July 2012 at a Pando Daily event in Santa Monica, California. This
hypothetical high-speed mode of transportation would have the following characteristics:
immunity to weather, collision free, twice the speed of a plane, low power consumption, and
energy storage for 24-hour operations. The name Hyperloop was chosen because it would go in a
loop. Musk envisions the more advanced versions will be able to go at hypersonic speed. In May
2013, Musk likened the Hyperloop to a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air
hockey table".
From late 2012 until August 2013, a group of engineers from both Tesla and SpaceX worked
on the conceptual modeling of Hyperloop. An early system design was published in the Tesla
and SpaceX blogs which describes one potential design, function, pathway, and cost of a
hyperloop system. According to the alpha design, pods would accelerate to cruising speed
gradually using a linear electric motor and glide above their track on air bearings through tubes
above ground on columns or below ground in tunnels to avoid the dangers of grade crossings. An
ideal hyperloop system will be more energy-efficient, quiet, and autonomous than existing
modes of mass transit. Musk has also invited feedback to "see if the people can find ways to
improve it". The Hyperloop Alpha was released as an open source design. The word mark
"HYPERLOOP", applicable to "high-speed transportation of goods in tubes" was issued to
SpaceX on April 4, [Link] June 2015, SpaceX announced that it would build a 1-mile-long (1.6
km) test track to be located next to SpaceX's Hawthorne facility. The track would be used to test
pod designs supplied by third parties in the competition.
By November 2015, with several commercial companies and dozens of student teams
pursuing the development of Hyperloop technologies, the Wall Street Journal asserted that "The
Hyperloop Movement", as some of its unaffiliated members refer to themselves, is officially
bigger than the man who started it." The MIT Hyperloop team developed the first Hyperloop pod
prototype, which they unveiled at the MIT Museum on May 13, 2016. Their design uses
electrodynamic suspension for levitating and eddy current braking. On January 29, 2017,
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approximately one year after phase one of the Hyperloop pod competition, the MIT Hyperloop
pod demonstrated the first ever low-pressure Hyperloop run in the world. Within this first
competition the Delft University team from the Netherlands achieved the highest overall
competition score. The awards for the "fastest pod" and the "best performance in flight" were
won by the team WARR Hyperloop from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany.
The team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) placed third overall in the
competition, judged by SpaceX engineers.
The second Hyperloop pod competition took place from August 25–27, 2017. The only
judging criteria being top speed provided it is followed by successful deceleration. WARR
Hyperloop from the Technical University of Munich won the competition by reaching a top
speed of 324 km/h (201 mph) and therefore breaking the previous record of 310 km/h for
hyperloop prototypes set by Hyperloop One.
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[Link] of Hyperloop:
1. CAPSULE
2. TUBE
3. PROPULSION
3.1 Capsule:
Figure 3.1 Capsule
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Hyperloop company unveils its full-scale 750-mph 'passenger capsule' It is a "passenger
capsule" just revealed by one of the companies vying to create what has become known as a
hyperloop. That's the system designed to whisk people between cities through tubes. Sealed
capsules carrying 28 passengers travels from source to destination. The maximum width is 4.43ft
(1.35m) and maximum height is 6.11ft (1.10m) with rounded corners of 15ft (1.4m) frontal area
without including propulsion and Suspension components. Capsules are accelerated via magnetic
linear accelerator affixed with rotors in each station.
3.2 Tube:
The tube is made up of steel. The two tubes are wielded side by side to allow capsules in both
directions. Pylons are placed every 100ft to support tube. The power is provided to the capsule
with the help of solar panels placed on top of the tubes
Figure 3.2 Tube
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3.3 Propulsion:
Hyperloop is a new mode of transportation that moves freight and people quickly, safely, on-
demand and direct from origin to destination. Passengers or cargo are loaded into the hyperloop
vehicle and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube.
[Link] of Hyperloop:
Developments in high-speed rail have historically been impeded by the difficulties in
managing friction and air resistance both of which become substantial when Vehicles approach
high speeds. The vactrain concept theoretically eliminates these obstacles by employing
magnetically levitating trains in evacuated (airless) or partly evacuated tubes, allowing for
speeds of thousands of miles per hour. However, the high cost of maglev and the difficulty of
maintaining a vacuum over large distances has prevented this type of system from ever being
built. The Hyperloop resembles a vactrain system but operates at approximately one millibar
(100 Pa) of pressure.
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Figure 4.1 Pressure inside Hyperloop
[Link] and Tunnels:
The tube will be supported by pillars which constrain the tube in the vertical direction but
allow longitudinal slip for thermal expansion as well as dampened lateral slip to reduce the risk
posed by earthquakes. In addition, the pillar to tube connection nominal position will be
adjustable vertically and laterally to ensure proper alignment despite possible ground settling.
These minimally constrained pillars to tube joints will also allow a smoother ride. Specially
designed slip joints at stations will be able to take any tube length variance due to thermal
expansion. This is an ideal location for the thermal expansion joints as the speed is much lower
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nearby the stations. It thus allows the tube to be smooth and welded along the high speed gliding
middle section.
The spacing of the Hyperloop pillars retaining the tube is critical to achieve the design
objective of the tube structure. The average spacing is 100 ft (30 m), which means there will be
roughly 25,000 pillars supporting both Hyperloop tubes and overhead solar panels. The pillars
will be 20ft (6 m) tall whenever possible but may vary in height in hilly areas or where obstacles
are in the way. Also, in some key areas, the spacing will have to vary in order to pass over roads
or other obstacles. Small spacing between each support reduces the deflection of the tube
keeping the capsule steadier and the journey more enjoyable. In addition, reduced spacing
increased resistance to seismic loading as well as the lateral acceleration.
Due to the sheer quantity of pillars required, reinforced concrete was selected as the
construction material due to its very low cost per volume. In some short areas, tunneling may be
required to avoid going over mountains and to keep the route as straight as possible. The cost for
the pillar construction and tube joints is anticipated to be no more than $2.55 billion USD for the
passenger version tube and $3.15 billion USD for the passenger plus vehicle version tube. The
expected cost for the tunneling is expected to be no more than $600 million USD for the smaller
diameter tube and near $700 million USD for the larger diameter tube. Structural simulations
(Figure 15 through Figure 20) have demonstrated the capability of the Hyperloop to withstand
atmospheric pressure, tube weight, earthquakes, winds etc.
Figure 5.1 Pylons and Tunnels
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[Link] of Hyperloop:
Hyperloop One wants to build a real, working Hyperloop – but it’ll need strong partners to
make it a reality, across both industry and government. That’s why, in part, it held a global
competition requesting proposals for routes around the world. The winners of that competition
have now been announced, and the resulting routes span the U.S., the U.K, Mexico, India and
Canada.
Hyperloop One has assessed each proposal from hundreds of teams who applied from
around the world, examining the potential of each from the perspective of infrastructure,
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technology, regulatory environment and transportation concerns. AS a result, it identified the
strongest candidates with the following routes:
U.S.
● Cheyenne – Denver – Puelbo (360 miles)
● Chicago – Columbus – Pittsburgh (488 miles)
● Miami – Orlando (257 miles)
● Dallas – Houston (640 miles)
U.K.
● Edinburgh – London (414 miles)
● Glasgow – Liverpool (339 miles)
Mexico
● Mexico City – Guadalajara (330 miles)
India
● Bengaluru – Chennai (208 miles)
● Mumbai – Chennai (685 miles)
[Link]:
➨The technology offers very fast speed of transportation which
twice that of air craft.
➨It has very low power consumption.
➨It is low cost transportation system on long run.
➨It is immune to bad weather conditions.
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➨It is resistant to earthquakes.
➨It is safe mode of transportation system.
[Link]:
➨High speed of capsule (almost at speed of sound) may cause dizziness to the passengers
travelling due to vibration and jostling.
➨Initial cost of investment to have the system in place is very high. The vacuum chamber
manufacturing requires more technical skills. Moreover this is costly and also risky to maintain.
➨Land use rights will be concern for deployment of the project.
➨It has very high risk to life when something wrong happens to the system.
➨It has limited space in the train and hence people cannot move freely.
➨As hyperloop uses steel for track, it expands and changes shape when outside temperature is
changed. This may destroy the track of hyperloop technology. This needs to be considered while
designing the system based on environment of the location where it is being deployed.
➨The installation requires cutting of large number of trees. This leads to environment loss.
[Link]:
A high speed transportation system known as Hyperloop has been developed in this
document. The work has detailed two version of the Hyperloop a passenger only version and a
passenger plus vehicle version. Hyperloop could transport people, Vehicles, and freight between
Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes. Transporting 7.4 million people each way and
amortizing the cost of $6 billion over 20 years gives a ticket price of $20 for a one-way trip for
the passenger version of Hyperloop.
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[Link]:
1. [Link]
2. [Link]
3. [Link]
4. [Link]
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5. [Link]
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