Hyper Loop
Published: 2022-12-01 06:42:33

- What is Hyperloop???
A hyperloop is a proposed high-speed transportation system for both public and goods transport. The idea was picked up by Elon Musk to describe a modern project based on the vactrain concept (first appearance in 1799). Hyperloop systems comprise three essential elements: tubes, pods, and terminals. The tube is a large, sealed and low-pressured system (usually a long tunnel). The pod is a coach pressurized at atmospheric pressure that runs substantially free of air resistance or friction inside this tube using magnetic propulsion (in some cases augmented by a ducted fan). The terminal handles pod arrivals and departures. The Hyperloop, in the initial form proposed by Musk, differs from vactrains by relying on residual air pressure inside the tube to provide lift by aero foils and propulsion by fans.


 


The hyperloop has its roots in a concept by George Medhurst in 1799 and subsequently developed under the name's pneumatic railway, atmospheric railways or vactrain. Elon Musk renewed interest in hyperloop after mentioning it in a 2012 speaking event. Musk further promoted the concept by publishing a white paper in August 2013, which conceived of a hyperloop route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly following the Interstate 5 corridor. His initial concept incorporated reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on air bearings driven by linear induction motor and axial compressor. Transportation analysts challenged the cost estimates included in the white paper, with some predicting that a realized hyperloop would be several billion dollars over budget.




The hyperloop concept has been promoted by Musk and SpaceX, and other companies or organizations have been encouraged to collaborate and develop the technology. Technical University of Munich Hyperloop set the hyperloop speed record of 463 km/h (288 mph) in July 2019 at the pod design competition hosted by SpaceX in Hawthrone, California. Virgin Hyperloop conducted the first human trial in November 2020 at its test site in Vegas, reaching a top speed of 172 km/h (107 mph)




- History


18th and 19th century: imagining the hyperloop’s precursors: -


Musk’s idea to build a super-fast alternative to trains, which would travel through a series of low-pressure tubes and be powered by a vacuum and maglev system, was based on studies dating back at least three centuries.
One of the first people to ever imagine a prototype of the hyperloop was British inventor George Medhurst in the 18th century. Medhurst, who pioneered the use of compressed air as means of propulsion, filed a patent for a system that could move goods through a system of iron pipes in 1799.
In 1845, the London and Croydon Railway built an experimental cargo station in which a vacuum was created between the rails and the train, causing it to be propelled forward by atmospheric pressure. Even though the Croydon railway experiment was abandoned two years later, by 1850 pneumatic cargo railways started to appear also in other parts of Europe, such as Dublin and Paris.
During the mid-1860s, the Crystal Palace atmospheric railway was built in south London and ran through Crystal Palace Park for several months. The system featured a fan that was 22ft in diameter to propel the train. For return journeys, the fan’s blades would reverse, sucking the carriage back along the tracks.




- 20th century: levitating pods and air cushion technology


In his research paper, Musk acknowledged US rocket scientist Robert Goddard as one of the first to ever design a hyperloop.
In 1909, Goddard wrote an article entitled ‘The Limit of Rapid Transit’, where he described a train that would travel from Boston to New York in only 12 minutes. Even though it was never built, the project included some of the hyperloop’s building blocks such as the presence of levitating pods and a vacuum-sealed tube.
After World War II, attempts were made to build a system similar to the hyperloop. These included the Aerotrain, which was developed in France between 1965 and 1977.
Designed by French scientist Jean Bertin, the Aerotrain’s prototype was similar to a levitation train but relied on cushions of air instead of magnetic resistance for propulsion. However, a lack of funding, the cost of infrastructure and Bertin’s death in 1975 spelled the end of the project.
In the 1990s, a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers spearheaded by Professor Ernst Frankel started to develop a vacuum-tube train that would take 45 minutes to go from New York to Boston. Even though a test loop was built, the project was eventually shelved.
- The 2000s: from ET3 to Elon Musk
In the early 2000s, US consortium ET3 Global Alliance CEO Daryl Oster designed a maglev train in which car-sized pods travelled in elevated tubes.
Patented in 1999 through an open consortium model, ET3 stands for Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies, which refers to a “network of tubes that have air removed to eliminate friction for magnetically levitated and driverless capsules”.
While Musk first mentioned the hyperloop in 2012 at an event organized by technology publication Pando Daily, it was only in August 2013 that he revealed the first design.
In a 57-page document, Musk detailed how Hyperloop Alpha would be made up of enclosed capsules or pods – each containing up to 28 people – moving through a system of tubes on skis that levitated on a cushion of air.
Proposed as a faster and electric-powered alternative to the California high speed rail, Alpha Hyperloop would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes and cost $6bn.
Just as Oster did in 1999, Musk decided not to patent it for himself, but instead registered the design using the open-source project model.
- 2013-2020: make way for hyperloop
In the years between 2013 and 2020, a handful of companies – including Virgin Hyperloop and Zeleros – started working on developing the hyperloop from Musk’s designs.
Formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies and Hyperloop One, Virgin Hyperloop started to actively work on the hyperloop in May 2016, when it successfully carried out its first open-air test in North Las Vegas. “Our growing team of incredible engineers is working at full-speed along a proven development process to design, analyse, build and test the hardware and software to make Hyperloop a reality,” commented co-founder NV. Brogan Bam Brogan.
Two months later, the company presented its first feasibility study, showing the economic and environmental positive impact of a potential 500km hyperloop connection between Helsinki and Stockholm, reducing travelling times between the two Scandinavian capitals to 28 minutes.
In March 2017, the company showed the first images for its hyperloop development site, which was built in the Nevada desert. With a diameter of 3.3m and a length of 500m, DevLoop was the world’s only full-system and full-scale test-site.
“Our team of more than 150 engineers, technicians and fabricators have been transforming what was, just over five months ago, a barren stretch of desert, into a hive of activity and now home to the world’s first full-scale Hyperloop test site,” commented Geigel at the time.
In July 2017, the company announced that it had successfully completed its first full system hyperloop test in a vacuum environment. The vehicle cruised through the first part of DevLoop for 5.3 seconds, achieving 2Gs of acceleration and achieving a speed of 69mph.
In August of the same year, it was revealed that Hyperloop One had travelled at a speed of 2.7 times the one achieved in the first trial, reaching 192mph compared to 69. The prototype had also travelled longer, covering the whole 500m DevLoop distance.
After showcasing the project’s design around the world and carrying out passenger application demonstrations, in October 2020 Virgin Hyperloop successfully carried out its first passenger test.
- 2020: Zeleros secures new funding
Founded after winning the Best Hyperloop Proposal Prize and Best Hyperloop Propulsion Prize at the SpaceX-sponsored 2015 Hyperloop Pod Competition, Valencia-based Zeleros Hyperloop began working to make its prototype a reality in 2016.
After raising technological and economic support, the company joined forces with Siemens in June 2019 to develop the technology and infrastructure necessary for the project.
“Our approach brings two main benefits,” CEO David Pistoni told Railway Technology. “The first one is to reduce infrastructure costs and maintenance, while the second is to have some kind of aerodynamic propulsion inside the vehicle, in a way similar to an aero plane while being 100% electric.”
In June 2020, the company managed to secure €7m, completing the financing stage. “The next steps will require building a complete vehicle, to integrate all the technologies we have already validated at the laboratory scale, and our test track to run it in operational conditions,” added Pistoni.


- Operation


 






In Elon Musk's world, the Hyperloop will become a "fifth mode" of transportation, standing beside planes, trains, automobiles and boats in the pantheon of mechanized movement. Musk envisions people traveling through the Hyperloop in pods that whiz through steel tubes mounted on pylons, or pillars, designed to withstand


California's earthquakes. Those pylons, made of reinforced concrete, would be spaced every 100 feet (30 meters) or so and stand 20, 50 and 100 feet (6, 15 and 30 meters) high, depending on the terrain


The vactrain concept resembles a high-so system without substantial air resistance by employing magnetically levitating trains in evacuated(airless) or partly evacuated tubes. However, the difficulty of maintaining a vacuum over large distances has prevented this type of system from ever being built. The hyperloop is similar to a vactrain system but operates at approximately one millibar(100 pa) of pressure




- How Does the Hyperloop Go So Fast?
A hyperloop is able to reach extreme speeds because it addresses one of the most basic rules of physics—friction slows things down. 
Hyperloop designs rely on creating a low-friction environment within a tunnel or tube. Individual pods seating a small group of people could then travel at extreme speeds through the tubes.


The hyperloop travels via an efficient electric motor, and friction is reduced in two ways:
•	Depressurized tunnels create a near-vacuum environment where almost all of the air has been sucked out. This creates an environment where extremely high speeds are possible because there’s minimal aerodynamic drag or wind resistance.
•	Magnetic levitation (maglev) causes each pod t


o hover. This removed the ground friction of wheels or tires that occurs in other modes of ground transportation. This technology is already being used in high-speed bullet trains. In the image above, the magnets in red are for levitation and propulsion. The magnets in blue are for horizontal stabilization. There are two maglev methods currently in development for hyperloop applications. Passive maglev uses a specific configuration of magnets that perpetually create current and keep the pod consistently hovering. No external power is needed. In another design, active maglev combines permanent passive-style magnets with electromagnetics. This makes it possible to adjust the current to smooth out the ride.
- A Solution, Elon Musk Style


Musk promises that the pods would be comfortable and safe. Pods would travel through the Hyperloop one at a time, leaving every 30 seconds or


so at rush hour and spaced 23 miles (37 kilometers) apart on average. Passengers can enter and exit the tube at each end and via branches along the loop (see Musk's white paper for proposed route specifics). Each passenger pod is designed to hold 28 people seated in 14 rows of two, along with a luggage compartment in one end, and larger pods can hold a car. Passengers would pay $20 for a one-way ticket [sources: Belfiore, SpaceX, Lavrinc].




Once on and rid of their luggage, passengers could settle into their seats, buckle their seat belts and flip on their personal entertainment displays for the 35-minute ride. Just don't get up to use the bathroom. 
Because there's no mention of one. Yet. And with a maxim


um pod height of 6.11 feet (1.10 meters) and width of 4.43 feet (1.35 meters), it might be a little too cozy for the claustrophobically inclined [sources: SpaceX].
Will the Hyperloop work? Who knows? Musk seems to think so, and many people say it's possible. The closest thing to the high-speed Hyperloop is the maglev bullet train, which can top out at 361 miles (581 kilometers) per hour. 
Jim Powell, who helped invent the train, told The Verge that Musk is on to something by enclosing the system in a tube. He said that a system out in the open creates too much drag. Powell added that drag could still be a problem even inside the hermetically sealed Hyperloop, and maintaining a speed of say 600 miles (96


6 kilometers) per hour might be difficult [source: Brandom].
Moreover, the Hyperloop would work best if the tubes were built in a straight line, which they can't be due to the landscape between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Powell said riders could get sick if the pods turn too sharply [source: Brandom].
While many people agree that the technical problems created by the Hyperloop could probably be solved, many question at what price. 
They say the $6 billion price tag is excessively low for a high-speed project of this magnitude. Heck, renovations to the San Francisco Bay Bridge totaled $6.4 billion [source: Thanawala]. For his part, Musk doesn't want to spend his own money and hopes others will step forward, maybe even you, dear readers, via crowdfunding sites su


ch as JumpStart Fund. If not, then perhaps the man who put the first privately owned rocket into space will also give the world the Hyperloop.


 




- What Are the Safety Risks?


Despite the ambitious progress that’s already been made, we are still in the early stage of hyperloop development. Before hyperloop transportation can become a reality, there are clear safety risks to overcome.




•	High speeds:
The first hyperloop passenger test reached a top speed of 107 mph in 6.25 seconds. We still don’t know the effect that extreme acceleration within an enclosed chamber will have on the human body. Astronauts train their bodies to handle extreme acceleration, and PBS wondered if the hyperloop experience will be “two minutes of puke city.”


•	Collisions within the vacuum tubes:


Hyperloop system designs have multiple pods traveling at very high speeds within a single tube. Because the pods are within the braking threshold of one another, there’s the risk of a very dangerous collision.




Hyperloop pod damage:
Obviously, humans need air to live, and the tunnels do not have breathable air. Engineers need to address the safety of a situation when the pod becomes compromised.


•	Tunnel decompression:
Because the tunnel is a near-vacuum, a break in the structure would cause it to implode. For example, look at what happens if the air pressure of a railroad tank car vacuum is compromised. The damage is nearly instantaneous.
These safety concerns just scratch the surface. Engineers will have to plan for all sorts of contingencies like heat expansion, earthquakes, or hum


an error. In particular, California and Missouri are the worst places in the country for earthquakes, making seismic safety a major concern for those two hyperloop routes. 
To reduce some safety concerns, initial hyperloop systems will likely be used for freight and cargo transport. 
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ve the extreme safety concerns of a hyperloop, but it’s still important to protect your investment. Find out how the foundation repair and basement waterproofing experts at Groundworks can help.