# Case Study of an Integrated Design and Technical Concept for a Scalable Hyperloop System
## 4 Functional Definition
### Power  
To calculate the power demand of the pod, Table 5 considers not only the major contributors, propulsion and levitation, but also the power required for the onboard electronics in the passenger module (cabin systems) and in the service module (service electronics). As shown, a battery sized for the maximum power is sufficient to power the pod for about a quarter of an hour in nominal operation, according to the values of [PERSON] et al. [25]. Nevertheless, it is operationally unacceptable to charge pods in the stations. Firstly, space in the stations is limited, and it is detrimental if it is occupied by charging pods. Secondly, the amortization of pods is significantly improved when they are in operation most of the time instead of charging. Therefore, a continuous means of power transmission is required. The challenge is that this means of power transmission must be contact-free due to the high speed, and it must be relatively cheap as well as reliable because it is part of the infrastructure. Inductive power supply (IPS) is a technology developed for the Transrapid [26]. It is capable of transmitting power through magnetic resonance from a coaxial cable loop (primary) to a collector (secondary) in the pod. Although at peak times, for the roughly 180 kW nominal power per pod, the set 300 \(\frac{\mathrm{kW}}{\mathrm{km}}\) are insufficient when there are on average 2.25 \(\frac{\mathrm{pods}}{\mathrm{km}}\). This is seen as a meaningful compromise, as only after rush hour, some pods will have to charge. This means that it allows some pods to recharge in the stations after peak hours while generally enabling continuous operation. Another driving factor influencing the total energy demand is the power required by vacuum pumps to counteract leakage, excluding the initial pump-down process. Table 6 summarizes the parameters of the vacuum system, indicating that with the leakage rate and power consumption observed in the 24 m Demonstrator, a pump station with 300 kW every 19.4 km would be sufficient to maintain the target pressure of 10 mbar. It is important to note that both the leakage rate and power consumption of the Demonstrator are conservative \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c} \hline \hline
**Description** & **Value** \\ \hline Max motor power & 3.00 MW \\ Drag BR 0.26 (max speed) & 461 N \\ Drag BR 0.33 (nom speed) & 557 N \\ Aero power (nom speed) & 81.98 kW \\ Aero power (max speed) & 76.78 kW \\ Drag from lev\&guid & 221 N \\ Power for lev\&guid (nom speed) & 32.50 kW \\ Mechanical motor power (nom speed) & 114.48 kW \\ Electrical motor power (nom speed) & 152.64 kW \\ Efficiency motor + energy transmission & 75\% \\ Power loss motor (nom speed) & 38.16 kW \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Propulsion characteristics. Values with a grey background are calculated, while others are input values. measures. A significant portion of the leakage likely originates from the endcaps of the short Demonstrator tube, which are not fully representative, and the vacuum system is not operated at its optimal efficiency. For the calculation of the average energy per traveled pack kilometer 8 Mio passengers per year were assumed. Additionally, the simplification was made that the system length is the same as the average trip length. This is true for point-to-point connections but must be analyzed further in detail for a hyperloop network. Using the values given in Table 7, the average energy consumption at nominal speed can be calculated. The results show that even at 530 \(\frac{\mathrm{km}}{\mathrm{h}}\) and with small pods, the energy demand of approximately 44 \(\frac{\mathrm{W}\mathrm{h}}{\mathrm{par\,km}}\) for the system can be considerably lower compared to that of high-speed rail (HSR) with 61 \(\frac{\mathrm{W}\mathrm{h}}{\mathrm{par\,km}}\) average at the European level according to [PERSON] et al. [27]. Here, the electrical power for cooling refers to the chillers required at the pumping stations to condense the vapor that was emitted by the pods for cooling (see Section 4.6).