超回路列车

<image>

超回路列车（Hyperloop），又称超级高铁，是一种能在真空管中，高速运输系统乘客或是货物概念的总称，有着比火车和飞机更快的速度，并且使用能源更低。目前该科技还处于研发阶段。这套系统的运输舱运行于减压、近真空的管路中，在磁悬浮原理的轨道中行驶，运输舱则使用线性感应马达和空气压缩机推进，因此能大幅降低阻力，期望能使列车加速达每小时1080公里(670英里)。

企业家伊隆·马斯克及其所属的SpaceX公司于2012年重新提出新构想，Hyperloop原预定在美国建造，有感于北加州高速铁路的工程缓慢，且造价昂贵。超回路列车白皮书（Hyperloop Alpha）初步概念设计由Tesla及SpaceX二公司的工程师共同完成，而其设计文件最初是发布在Tesla and SpaceX公司的部落格上，并最终在2013年8月向大众公开。此版本的Hyperloop被称之为Hyperloop alpha，其中记载了仅供载客的版本造价为60亿，而能同时提供载客和车辆运输的版本造价则为75亿，也就是指说只有高速铁路的十分之一。多位运输工程师在2013年对规划中的加州路线预算提出质疑，评估建设的规模和科技的不确定风险后，质疑者认为预算总金额过低且不切实际。超回路列车在技术和经济上的可行性并未有前例可实证，且仍有许多争论。

初期设计文件中规划了一条概念路线，以洛杉矶区域为起点，开往旧金山湾区，大部分的路线与5号州际公路平行。初步分析显示此路线旅程的总运行时间为35分钟，路线总长354mi，列车平均时速为598mph，最高时速则为760mph。

2015年10月下旬，超级高铁有限公司(HTT)正式宣布将在2016年初开始第一阶段的工程，将在旧金山至洛杉矶间的中段位置，加利福尼亚州金斯郡境内建造一段耗资60亿、可运行的正式轨道。

## 历史

于1799年真空管道高速交通此构想首次被提出，在1904年由伍斯特理工学院的一年级生罗伯特·戈达德发明。

马斯克于2012年7月在加利福尼亚州圣塔莫尼卡举行的 PandoDaily 活动中，首次提到他正在构想“第五种交通方式”，其称之为 Hyperloop。此高速运输方式具有以下特点：不受天气影响、不会有碰撞事件产生、速度是飞机的两倍、低功耗以及可供 24 小时运行的储能系统。

选择Hyperloop这个名字是因为它会循环运行。马斯克推测经过改善，之后将能够以高超音速行驶。

2013年5月，马斯克将他的 Hyperloop 比作“协和飞机、轨道炮和气垫球桌之间的交叉点”。

从2012年底到2013年8月，来自特斯拉和 SpaceX 的一组工程师致力于为马斯克的Hyperloop进行概念建模。

Tesla和SpaceX的部落格中发布了一个早期的系统概念模型，该模型描述了Hyperloop系统的可行设计、功能、路径和成本。

根据设计，吊舱将使用线性电动机逐渐加速至巡航速度，并透过高架桥或是地下隧道的形式在空气轴承的轨道上滑行，以避免平交道口此潜在危险。一个理想的超级高铁系统将比现有的大众运输方式更节能、更安静、更自主。

马斯克还接受反馈，“看看人们是否能找到改进它的方法”。Hyperloop Alpha 首先被推出作为开源设计。

2017年4月4日，SpaceX 获得了“HYPERLOOP”的商标，其适用于“货物高速运输隧道”。

2015年6月，SpaceX 宣布将在霍桑建造一条1英里长（1.6 公里）的测试轨道。轨道已完成并用于测试比赛中第三方提供的吊舱设计。

到2015年11月，随着多家商业公司和数十个学生团队致力于开发 Hyperloop 技术，《华尔街日报》报导，正如其一些非附属成员所称的那样，“Hyperloop活动”的风气已盛况空前。

麻省理工学院Hyperloop团队开发了第一个Hyperloop吊舱原型，他们于2016年5月13日在麻省理工博物馆揭幕。设计理念为使用电动悬架进行悬浮和涡流刹车。

2017 年1月29日，大约在Hyperloop吊舱竞赛第一阶段的一年后，麻省理工学院Hyperloop吊舱展示了世界上第一次低压Hyperloop运行。

2020年11月，Virgin Hyperloop 与该公司的两名员工成功地执行首次使用Hyperloop技术的乘客测试，最高时速达到172公里/小时（107英里/小时）。

## 理论和运行方式

超回路列车的运送舱行驶于几乎真空状态的管道中，每舱可搭乘28人，在管道中以电磁悬浮原理推动运送舱高速前进，每舱配有排气系统，减少摩擦力。运送舱前方亦配有大型风扇，吸气排向后方减轻风阻。

<image>

- 超回路列车运输舱示意图：前方为空气压缩机，乘客座位部分位于中段，后方装有蓄电池，底部则为空气轴承

<image>

- 超回路列车土建工程的3D示意图。钢制的管道在图片中以透明色表现

The vactrain concept resembles a high-speed rail 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 1mbar of pressure.

### 初始设计概念

The hyperloop concept operates by sending specially designed "capsules" or "pods" through a steel tube maintained at a partial vacuum. In Musk's original concept, each capsule would float on a 0.5-1.3mm layer of air provided under pressure to air-caster "skis", similar to how pucks are levitated above an air hockey table, while still allowing higher speeds than wheels can sustain. With rolling resistance eliminated and air resistance greatly reduced, the capsules can glide for the bulk of the journey. In the alpha design concept, an electrically driven inlet fan and axial compressor would be placed at the nose of the capsule to "actively transfer high-pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel", resolving the problem of air pressure building in front of the vehicle, slowing it down. A fraction of the air was to be shunted to the skis for additional pressure, augmenting that gain passively from lift due to their shape.

In the alpha-level concept, passenger-only pods were to be 2.23m in diameter and were projected to reach a top speed of 760mph to maintain aerodynamic efficiency. (Section 4.4) The design proposed passengers experience a maximum inertial acceleration of 0.5 g, about 2 or 3 times that of a commercial airliner on takeoff and landing.

### 建议路线

<image>

A number of routes have been proposed for hyperloop systems that meet the approximate distance conditions for which a hyperloop is hypothesized to provide improved transport times (distances of under approximately 1500km).Route proposals range from speculation described in company releases to business cases to signed agreements.

#### 美国

2013年在alpha级设计文档中建议的路线是从大洛杉矶地区到旧金山湾区。这一概念系统将从位于Tejon Pass以南的Sylmar开始，沿加利福尼亚州的5号州际公路向北行驶，最终到达旧金山湾东侧的Hayward。设计文档中还展示了几个建议的分支，包括萨克拉门托、阿纳海姆、圣地亚哥和拉斯维加斯谷。

目前没有任何根据马斯克的alpha设计提案的实际工作得到进展。原因之一是该系统将在洛杉矶和旧金山两大都市区的边缘地区终止，并不会进入市中心，虽然这将显著降低建设成本，但也要求从Sylmar和Hayward出发的乘客需要转乘其他交通工具才能到达最终目的地。这将显著延长到达这些目的地的总旅行时间。

A similar problem already affects present-day air travel, where on short routes (like LAX–SFO) the flight time is only a rather small part of door to door travel time. Critics have argued that this would significantly reduce the proposed cost and/or time savings of hyperloop as compared to the California High-Speed Rail project that will serve downtown stations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.Passengers traveling from financial center to financial center are estimated to save about two hours by taking the Hyperloop instead of driving the whole distance.

Others questioned the cost projections for the suggested California route. Some transportation engineers argued in 2013 that they found the alpha-level design cost estimates unrealistically low given the scale of construction and reliance on unproven technology. The technological and economic feasibility of the idea is unproven and a subject of significant debate.

In November 2017, Arrivo announced a concept for a maglev automobile transport system from Aurora, Colorado to Denver International Airport, the first leg of a system from downtown Denver.Its contract described potential completion of a first leg in 2021. In February 2018, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced a similar plan for a loop connecting Chicago and Cleveland and a loop connecting Washington and New York City.

In 2018 the Missouri Hyperloop Coalition was formed between Virgin Hyperloop One, the University of Missouri, and engineering firm Black & Veatch to study a proposed route connecting St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City.

On 19 December 2018, Elon Musk unveiled a 3km tunnel below Los Angeles. In the presentation, a Tesla Model X drove in a tunnel on the predefined track (rather than in a low-pressure tube). According to Musk the costs for the system are 10 million.Musk said: "The Loop is a stepping stone toward hyperloop. The Loop is for transport within a city. Hyperloop is for transport between cities, and that would go much faster than 150 mph."

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, or NOACA, partnered with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to conduct a $1.3 million feasibility study for developing a hyperloop corridor route from Chicago to Cleveland and Pittsburgh for America's first multistate hyperloop system in the Great Lakes Megaregion. Hundreds of thousands of dollars already have been committed to the project. NOACA's Board of Directors has awarded a $550,029 contract to Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc. (TEMS) for the Great Lakes Hyperloop Feasibility Study to evaluate the feasibility of an ultra-high-speed hyperloop passenger and freight transport system initially linking Cleveland and Chicago.

#### 印度

2016 年，超回路运输科技公司曾与印度政府考虑在清奈和邦加罗尔之间修建一条计划路线，345km的旅途只需要30分钟。

HTT还与安德拉邦政府签署了一项协议，将建设印度首个超回路列车项目，连接阿马拉瓦蒂和维杰亚瓦达，车程6分钟。

2018年2月22日，Hyperloop One与马哈拉什特拉邦政府签订了一份合作备忘录，将在孟买和浦那之间建设一个超回路列车交通系统，将旅途时间从目前的180分钟缩短至20分钟。

Indore-based Dinclix GroundWorks' DGWHyperloop advocates a hyperloop corridor between Mumbai and Delhi, via Indore, Kota, and Jaipur.

#### 其他国家

Many of the active Hyperloop routes that have been considered are outside of the US. In 2016, Hyperloop One published the world's first detailed business case for a 500km route between Helsinki and Stockholm, which would tunnel under the Baltic Sea to connect the two capitals in under 30 minutes.Hyperloop One undertook a feasibility study with DP World to move containers from its Port of Jebel Ali in Dubai.In late 2016, Hyperloop One announced a feasibility study with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority for passenger and freight routes connecting Dubai with the greater United Arab Emirates. Hyperloop One was also considering passenger routes in Moscow during 2016,and a cargo hyperloop to connect Hunchun in north-eastern China to the Port of Zarubino, near Vladivostok and the North Korean border on Russia's Far East.In May 2016, Hyperloop One kicked off their Global Challenge with a call for comprehensive proposals of hyperloop networks around the world.In September 2017, Hyperloop One selected 10 routes from 35 of the strongest proposals: Toronto–Montreal, Cheyenne–Denver–Pueblo, Miami–Orlando, Dallas–Laredo–Houston, Chicago–Columbus–Pittsburgh, Mexico City–Guadalajara, Edinburgh–London, Glasgow–Liverpool, Bengaluru–Chennai, and Mumbai–Chennai.

Others have put forward European routes, including a route beginning at Amsterdam or Schiphol to Frankfurt.In 2016, a Warsaw University of Technology team began evaluating potential routes from Cracow to Gdańsk across Poland proposed by Hyper Poland.

TransPod explored the possibility of hyperloop routes which would connect Toronto and Montreal,Toronto to Windsor,and Calgary to Edmonton.Toronto and Montreal, the largest cities in Canada, are currently connected by Ontario Highway 401, the busiest highway in North America.In March 2019, Transport Canada commissioned the study of hyperloops, so it can be "better informed on the technical, operational, economic, safety, and regulatory aspects of the hyperloop and understand its construction requirements and commercial feasibility."

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) reportedly signed an agreement with the government of Slovakia in March 2016 to perform impact studies, with potential links between Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest, but there have been no further developments.In January 2017, HTT signed an agreement to explore the route Bratislava—Brno—Prague in Central Europe.

In 2017, SINTEF, the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, announced they were considering building a test lab for hyperloop in Norway.

An agreement was signed in June 2017 to co-develop a hyperloop line between Seoul and Busan in South Korea.

#### 火星

根据马斯克的观点，超回路列车在火星上具有实用性。由于火星大气层只相当于地球海平面浓度的1%，使得列车不需要管道就能运行。

在地球上，列车需要低压管道来降低空气阻力；但若能在火星上建造该系统，更低的空气阻力可使得列车不再依赖管道，只需轨道即可运行，使其更接近于磁悬浮列车。

### 开源设计演进

In September 2013, Ansys Corporation ran computational fluid dynamics simulations to model the aerodynamics of the capsule and shear stress forces that the capsule would be subjected to. The simulation showed that the capsule design would need to be significantly reshaped to avoid creating supersonic airflow, and that the gap between the tube wall and capsule would need to be larger. Ansys employee Sandeep Sovani said the simulation showed that hyperloop has challenges but that he is convinced it is feasible.

In October 2013, the development team of the OpenMDAO software framework released an unfinished, conceptual open-source model of parts of the hyperloop's propulsion system. The team asserted that the model demonstrated the concept's feasibility, although the tube would need to be 4m in diameter,

significantly larger than originally projected. However, the team's model is not a true working model of the propulsion system, as it did not account for a wide range of technical factors required to physically construct a hyperloop based on Musk's concept, and in particular had no significant estimations of component weight.

In November 2013, MathWorks analyzed the proposal's suggested route and concluded that the route was mainly feasible. The analysis focused on the acceleration experienced by passengers and the necessary deviations from public roads in order to keep the accelerations reasonable; it did highlight that maintaining a trajectory along I-580 east of San Francisco at the planned speeds was not possible without significant deviation into heavily populated areas.

In January 2015, a paper based on the NASA OpenMDAO open-source model reiterated the need for a larger diameter tube and a reduced cruise speed closer to Mach 0.85. It recommended removing on-board heat exchangers based on thermal models of the interactions between the compressor cycle, tube, and ambient environment. The compression cycle would only contribute 5% of the heat added to the tube, with 95% of the heat attributed to radiation and convection into the tube. The weight and volume penalty of on-board heat exchangers would not be worth the minor benefit, and regardless the steady-state temperature in the tube would only reach 30- above ambient temperature.

According to Musk, various aspects of the hyperloop have technology applications to other Musk interests, including surface transportation on Mars and electric jet propulsion.

Researchers associated with MIT's department of Aeronautics and Astronautics published research in June 2017 that verified the challenge of aerodynamic design near the Kantrowitz limit that had been theorized in the original SpaceX Alpha-design concept released in 2013.

In 2017, Dr. Richard Geddes and others formed the Hyperloop Advanced Research Partnership to act as a clearinghouse of Hyperloop public domain reports and data.

In February 2020, Hardt Hyperloop, Hyper Poland, TransPod and Zeleros formed a consortium to drive standardisation efforts, as part of a joint technical committee (JTC20) set up by European standards bodies CEN and CENELEC to develop common standards aimed at ensuring the safety and interoperability of infrastructure, rolling stock, signalling and other systems.

## 乘坐舒适度考量

高速列车转向时会产生一定的向心力，要达到舒适的程度，轨道曲线的半径不可少于9公里，意味系统需要异常地笔直与精确，也不能有山地与都市等障碍物挡住路轨，这限制了超回路列车，特别是在人口分布均匀密集、地势高低起伏多、频发地震的地区的实际应用。

另外近真空的管道系统在建设上难度与成本相对于火车高出不少，相当于隧道的造价，可能导致其单程票价也会在成本问题下不敌航空运输，难以营利与投资建设。车厢空间方面，由于抽气扇设计，车厢前后间距必须很短，多节车也无法以常态存在，对车内载电池的能力要求也很高(管路没有电力线接触，最多只能磁感应)，同时还要支持车厢内的封闭维生系统，沿途行车安全出口、停等车站等重要设计考量也尚未构思，极待解决。

## 该领域公司

### 海波卢普科技公司

2016年11月，海波卢普科技公司位于美国拉斯维加斯的Hyperloop One (与伊隆·马斯克无关) & Hyperloop Genesis 与迪拜签署协议，开始进行可行性分析研究如何建造迪拜到阿布扎比超回路列车。至2020年11月时，已进行过高达400多次无人试验，11月首次载人测试成功。预计2025年完成安全认证，2030年正式营运，未来将以时速1000公里甚至1080公里的速度来运送乘客及货物。

2023年12月31日，海波卢普科技公司倒闭。

### 超级高铁有限公司

在2018年，超级高铁有限公司（HTT）成功研发出了世界第一台超回路列车的车厢。车厢长32米，每次载客量为28至50位乘客。而且设计能以时速1216公里的超快时速行驶。

2019年，超级高铁有限公司在法国南方的图卢兹兴建一条长达320米的测试轨道

### 中国航天科工集团

2019年9月，中共中央、国务院印发了《交通强国建设纲要》，纲要中指出了要安排低真空管（隧）道高速列车的储备研发。2021年5月24日，中国航天科工集团开始建造高速飞车山西省实验室揭牌暨大同(阳高)试验线工程，着手研制超高速低真空管道磁浮交通系统。2023年1月，首台管道磁浮高精度智能无人巡检车在阳高县高速飞车试验基地完成实验。2023年11月10日，高速飞车大同（阳高）试验线一期主体工程全部完工。

## 超回路列车路线竞赛

2016年Virgin Hyperloop 举办了一个跨世界的竞赛，邀请了世界各地的设计团队，对不同地方进行评估，选出世界各国最适合兴建超回路列车的地。选拔从2600个候选者，然后缩减至35个入围者，最后在各方评比下选出10个优秀路线。这些团队将能够与 Virgin Hyperloop 进行合作。

## 超回路列车运送舱竞赛

从2015年开始每年都由SpaceX主办，让大学生设计并打造小尺寸的超回路列车的运送舱，进阶者作品能在实际的低压管内试跑。

拥有最快速度者，为该届比赛冠军。于2016 SpaceX在其加州总部旁搭建约1.6 km(1英里)长的试验低压管，尺寸比白皮书中的略小。SpaceX于该年网站上声明:“SpaceX或是马斯克并无与任何其他公司有关系。SpaceX并不是为了商业化目的而举办，而是要支持促进超回力列车运送舱原型的设计速度。

## 外部链接

- Hyperloop Technologes
- Tesla Motors： Hyperloop Alpha
- SpaceX： Hyperloop Alpha