27-10-2016, 10:24 AM
[attachment=73986]
Intro
The first several pages will attempt to describe the design in everyday
language, keeping numbers to a minimum and avoiding formulas and jargon. I
apologize in advance for my loose use of language and imperfect analogies.
The second section is for those with a technical background. There are no
doubt errors of various kinds and superior optimizations for elements of the
system. Feedback would be most welcome – please send to
hyperloop[at]spacex.com or hyperloop[at]teslamotors.com. I would like to thank
my excellent compadres at both companies for their help in putting this
together.
Background
When the California “high speed” rail was approved, I was quite disappointed,
as I know many others were too. How could it be that the home of Silicon
Valley and JPL – doing incredible things like indexing all the world’s knowledge
and putting rovers on Mars – would build a bullet train that is both one of the
most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world? Note, I am
hedging my statement slightly by saying “one of”. The head of the California
high speed rail project called me to complain that it wasn’t the very slowest
bullet train nor the very most expensive per mile.
The underlying motive for a statewide mass transit system is a good one. It
would be great to have an alternative to flying or driving, but obviously only if
it is actually better than flying or driving. The train in question would be both
slower, more expensive to operate (if unsubsidized) and less safe by two orders
of magnitude than flying, so why would anyone use it?
If we are to make a massive investment in a new transportation system, then
the return should by rights be equally massive. Compared to the alternatives, it
should ideally be:
Safer
Faster
Lower cost
More convenient
Immune to weather
Sustainably self-powering
Resistant to Earthquakes
Not disruptive to those along the route
Is there truly a new mode of transport – a fifth mode after planes, trains, cars
and boats – that meets those criteria and is practical to implement? Many ideas
for a system with most of those properties have been proposed and should be
acknowledged, reaching as far back as Robert Goddard’s to proposals in recent
decades by the Rand Corporation and ET3.
Unfortunately, none of these have panned out. As things stand today, there is
not even a short distance demonstration system operating in test pilot mode
anywhere in the world, let alone something that is robust enough for public
transit. They all possess, it would seem, one or more fatal flaws that prevent
them from coming to fruition.
Constraining the Problem
The Hyperloop (or something similar) is, in my opinion, the right solution for
the specific case of high traffic city pairs that are less than about 1500 km or
900 miles apart. Around that inflection point, I suspect that supersonic air
travel ends up being faster and cheaper. With a high enough altitude and the
right geometry, the sonic boom noise on the ground would be no louder than
current airliners, so that isn’t a showstopper. Also, a quiet supersonic plane
immediately solves every long distance city pair without the need for a vast
new worldwide infrastructure.
However, for a sub several hundred mile journey, having a supersonic plane is
rather pointless, as you would spend almost all your time slowly ascending and
descending and very little time at cruise speed. In order to go fast, you need to
be at high altitude where the air density drops exponentially, as air at sea level
becomes as thick as molasses (not literally, but you get the picture) as you
approach sonic velocity.
So What is Hyperloop Anyway?
Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome
(someone please do this), the only option for super fast travel is to build a tube
over or under the ground that contains a special environment. This is where
things get tricky.
At one extreme of the potential solutions is some enlarged version of the old
pneumatic tubes used to send mail and packages within and between buildings.
You could, in principle, use very powerful fans to push air at high speed
through a tube and propel people-sized pods all the way from LA to San
Francisco. However, the friction of a 350 mile long column of air moving at
anywhere near sonic velocity against the inside of the tube is so stupendously
high that this is impossible for all practical purposes.
Another extreme is the approach, advocated by Rand and ET3, of drawing a
hard or near hard vacuum in the tube and then using an electromagnetic
suspension. The problem with this approach is that it is incredibly hard to
maintain a near vacuum in a room, let alone 700 miles (round trip) of large
tube with dozens of station gateways and thousands of pods entering and
exiting every day. All it takes is one leaky seal or a small crack somewhere in
the hundreds of miles of tube and the whole system stops working.
However, a low pressure (vs. almost no pressure) system set to a level where
standard commercial pumps could easily overcome an air leak and the
transport pods could handle variable air density would be inherently robust.
Unfortunately, this means that there is a non-trivial amount of air in the tube
and leads us straight into another problem.
Overcoming the Kantrowitz Limit
Whenever you have a capsule or pod (I am using the words interchangeably)
moving at high speed through a tube containing air, there is a minimum tube to
pod area ratio below which you will choke the flow. What this means is that if
the walls of the tube and the capsule are too close together, the capsule will
behave like a syringe and eventually be forced to push the entire column of air
in the system. Not good.
Nature’s top speed law for a given tube to pod area ratio is known as the
Kantrowitz limit. This is highly problematic, as it forces you to either go slowly
or have a super huge diameter tube. Interestingly, there are usually two
solutions to the Kantrowitz limit – one where you go slowly and one where you
go really, really fast.
The latter solution sounds mighty appealing at first, until you realize that going
several thousand miles per hour means that you can’t tolerate even wide turns
without painful g loads. For a journey from San Francisco to LA, you will also
experience a rather intense speed up and slow down. And, when you get right
down to it, going through transonic buffet in a tube is just fundamentally a
dodgy prospect.
Both for trip comfort and safety, it would be best to travel at high subsonic
speeds for a 350 mile journey. For much longer journeys, such as LA to NY, it
would be worth exploring super high speeds and this is probably technically
feasible, but, as mentioned above, I believe the economics would probably
favor a supersonic plane.
The approach that I believe would overcome the Kantrowitz limit is to mount
an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod that actively transfers high
pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel. This is like having a pump
in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure.
It would also simultaneously solve another problem, which is how to create a
low friction suspension system when traveling at over 700 mph. Wheels don’t
work very well at that sort of speed, but a cushion of air does. Air bearings,
which use the same basic principle as an air hockey table, have been
demonstrated to work at speeds of Mach 1.1 with very low friction. In this
case, however, it is the pod that is producing the air cushion, rather than the
tube, as it is important to make the tube as low cost and simple as possible.
That then begs the next question of whether a battery can store enough energy
to power a fan for the length of the journey with room to spare. Based on our
calculations, this is no problem, so long as the energy used to accelerate the
pod is not drawn from the battery pack.
This is where the external linear electric motor comes in, which is simply a
round induction motor (like the one in the Tesla Model S) rolled flat. This
would accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic
reboost roughly every 70 miles. The linear electric motor is needed for as little
as ~1% of the tube length, so is not particularly costly.
Making the Economics Work
The pods and linear motors are relatively minor expenses compared to the tube
itself – several hundred million dollars at most, compared with several billion
dollars for the tube. Even several billion is a low number when compared with
several tens of billion proposed for the track of the California rail project.
The key advantages of a tube vs. a railway track are that it can be built above
the ground on pylons and it can be built in prefabricated sections that are
dropped in place and joined with an orbital seam welder. By building it on
pylons, you can almost entirely avoid the need to buy land by following
alongside the mostly very straight California Interstate 5 highway, with only
minor deviations when the highway makes a sharp turn.
Even when the Hyperloop path deviates from the highway, it will cause minimal
disruption to farmland roughly comparable to a tree or telephone pole, which
farmers deal with all the time. A ground based high speed rail system by
comparison needs up to a 100 ft wide swath of dedicated land to build up
foundations for both directions, forcing people to travel for several miles just
to get to the other side of their property. It is also noisy, with nothing to
contain the sound, and needs unsightly protective fencing to prevent animals,
people or vehicles from getting on to the track. Risk of derailment is also not
to be taken lightly, as demonstrated by several recent fatal train accidents.
Earthquakes and Expansion Joints
A ground based high speed rail system is susceptible to Earthquakes and needs
frequent expansion joints to deal with thermal expansion/contraction and
subtle, large scale land movement.
By building a system on pylons, where the tube is not rigidly fixed at any point,
you can dramatically mitigate Earthquake risk and avoid the need for expansion
joints. Tucked away inside each pylon, you could place two adjustable lateral
(XY) dampers and one vertical (Z) damper.
These would absorb the small length changes between pylons due to thermal
changes, as well as long form subtle height changes. As land slowly settles to a
new position over time, the damper neutral position can be adjusted
accordingly. A telescoping tube, similar to the boxy ones used to access
airplanes at airports would be needed at the end stations to address the
cumulative length change of the tube.
Can it Really be Self-Powering?
For the full explanation, please see the technical section, but the short answer
is that by placing solar panels on top of the tube, the Hyperloop can generate
far in excess of the energy needed to operate. This takes into account storing
enough energy in battery packs to operate at night and for periods of extended
cloudy weather. The energy could also be stored in the form of compressed air
that then runs an electric fan in reverse to generate energy, as demonstrated
by LightSail.
Hyperloop Preliminary Design Study
Technical Section
1. Abstract
Existing conventional modes of transportation of people consists of four unique
types: rail, road, water, and air. These modes of transport tend to be either
relatively slow (i.e., road and water), expensive (i.e., air), or a combination of
relatively slow and expensive (i.e., rail). Hyperloop is a new mode of transport
that seeks to change this paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for
people and goods. Hyperloop is also unique in that it is an open design concept,
similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can help
advance the Hyperloop design and bring it from concept to reality.
Hyperloop consists of a low pressure tube with capsules that are transported at
both low and high speeds throughout the length of the tube. The capsules are
supported on a cushion of air, featuring pressurized air and aerodynamic lift.
The capsules are accelerated via a magnetic linear accelerator affixed at
various stations on the low pressure tube with rotors contained in each capsule.
Passengers may enter and exit Hyperloop at stations located either at the ends
of the tube, or branches along the tube length.
In this study, the initial route, preliminary design, and logistics of the
Hyperloop transportation system have been derived. The system consists of
capsules that travel between Los Angeles, California and San Francisco,
California. The total trip time is approximately half an hour, with capsules
departing as often as every 30 seconds from each terminal and carrying 28
people each. This gives a total of 7.4 million people each way that can be
transported each year on Hyperloop. The total cost of Hyperloop in this
analysis is under $6 billion USD. Amortizing this capital cost over 20 years and
adding daily operational costs gives a total of about $20 USD (in current year
dollars) plus operating costs per one-way ticket on the passenger Hyperloop.
Background
The corridor between San Francisco, California and Los Angeles, California is
one of the most often traveled corridors in the American West. The current
practical modes of transport for passengers between these two major
population centers include:
1. Road (inexpensive, slow, usually not environmentally sound)
2. Air (expensive, fast, not environmentally sound)
3. Rail (expensive, slow, often environmentally sound)
A new mode of transport is needed that has benefits of the current modes
without the negative aspects of each. This new high speed transportation
system has the following requirements:
1. Ready when the passenger is ready to travel (road)
2. Inexpensive (road)
3. Fast (air)
4. Environmentally friendly (rail/road via electric cars)
The current contender for a new transportation system between southern and
northern California is the “California High Speed Rail.” The parameters
outlining this system include:
1. Currently $68.4 billion USD proposed cost
2. Average speed of 164 mph (264 kph) between San Francisco and Los
Angeles
3. Travel time of 2 hours and 38 minutes between San Francisco and Los
Angeles
a. Compare with 1 hour and 15 minutes by air
b. Compare with 5 hours and 30 minutes by car
4. Average one-way ticket price of $105 one-way (reference)
a. Compare with $158 round trip by air for September 2013
b. Compare with $115 round trip by road ($4/gallon with 30 mpg
vehicle)
A new high speed mode of transport is desired between Los Angeles and San
Francisco; however, the proposed California High Speed Rail does not reduce
current trip times or reduce costs relative to existing modes of transport. This
preliminary design study proposes a new mode of high speed transport that
reduces both the travel time and travel cost between Los Angeles and San
Francisco. Options are also included to increase the transportation system to
other major population centers across California. It is also worth noting the
energy cost of this system is less than any currently existing mode of transport
Hyperloop Transportation System
Hyperloop (Figure 2 through Figure 3) is a proposed transportation system for
traveling between Los Angeles, California, and San Francisco, California in 35
minutes. The Hyperloop consists of several distinct components, including:
1. Capsule:
a. Sealed capsules carrying 28 passengers each that travel along the
interior of the tube depart on average every 2 minutes from Los
Angeles or San Francisco (up to every 30 seconds during peak
usage hours).
b. A larger system has also been sized that allows transport of 3 full
size automobiles with passengers to travel in the capsule.
c. The capsules are separated within the tube by approximately 23
miles (37 km) on average during operation.
d. The capsules are supported via air bearings that operate using a
compressed air reservoir and aerodynamic lift.
2. Tube:
a. The tube is made of steel. Two tubes will be welded together in a
side by side configuration to allow the capsules to travel both
directions.
b. Pylons are placed every 100 ft (30 m) to support the tube.
c. Solar arrays will cover the top of the tubes in order to provide
power to the system.
3. Propulsion:
a. Linear accelerators are constructed along the length of the tube
at various locations to accelerate the capsules.
b. Stators are located on the capsules to transfer momentum to the
capsules via the linear accelerators.
4. Route:
a. There will be a station at Los Angeles and San Francisco. Several
stations along the way will be possible with splits in the tube.
b. The majority of the route will follow I-5 and the tube will be
constructed in the median.
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
The maximum width is 4.43 ft (1.35 m) and maximum height is 6.11 ft (1.10
m). With rounded corners, this is equivalent to a 15 ft2
(1.4 m2
) frontal area,
not including any propulsion or suspension components.
The aerodynamic power requirements at 700 mph (1,130 kph) is around only
134 hp (100 kW) with a drag force of only 72 lbf (320 N), or about the same
force as the weight of one oversized checked bag at the airport. The doors on
each side will open in a gullwing (or possibly sliding) manner to allow easy
access during loading and unloading. The luggage compartment will be at the
front or rear of the capsule.
The overall structure weight is expected to be near 6,800 lb (3,100 kg)
including the luggage compartments and door mechanism. The overall cost of
the structure including manufacturing is targeted to be no more than $245,000.
Hyperloop Passenger Plus Vehicle Capsule
The passenger plus vehicle version of the Hyperloop capsule has an increased
frontal area of 43 ft2
(4.0 m2
), not including any propulsion or suspension
components. This accounts for enough width to fit a vehicle as large as the
Tesla Model X.
The aerodynamic power requirement at 700 mph (1,130 kph) is around only 382
hp (285 kW) with a drag force of 205 lbf (910 N). The doors on each side will
open in a gullwing (or possibly sliding) manner to allow accommodate loading
of vehicles, passengers, or freight.
The overall structure weight is expected to be near 7,700 lb (3,500 kg)
including the luggage compartments and door mechanism. The overall cost of
the structure including manufacturing is targeted to be no more than $275,000.
4.1.2. Interior
The interior of the capsule is specifically designed with passenger safety and
comfort in mind. The seats conform well to the body to maintain comfort
during the high speed accelerations experienced during travel. Beautiful
landscape will be displayed in the cabin and each passenger will have access
their own personal entertainment system.
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
The Hyperloop passenger capsule (Figure 8 and Figure 9) overall interior weight
is expected to be near 5,500 lb (2,500 kg) including the seats, restraint
systems, interior and door panels, luggage compartments, and entertainment
displays. The overall cost of the interior components is targeted to be no more
than $255,000.
Hyperloop Passenger Plus Vehicle Capsule
The Hyperloop passenger plus vehicle capsule overall interior weight is
expected to be near 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) including the seats, restraint systems,
interior and door panels, luggage compartments, and entertainment displays.
The overall cost of the interior components is targeted to be no more than
$185,000.
4.1.3. Compressor
One important feature of the capsule is the onboard compressor, which serves
two purposes. This system allows the capsule to traverse the relatively narrow
tube without choking flow that travels between the capsule and the tube walls
(resulting in a build-up of air mass in front of the capsule and increasing the
drag) by compressing air that is bypassed through the capsule. It also supplies
air to air bearings that support the weight of the capsule throughout the
journey.
The air processing occurs as follows (Figure 10 and Figure 11) (note mass
counting is tracked in Section 4.1.4):
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
1. Tube air is compressed with a compression ratio of 20:1 via an axial
compressor.
2. Up to 60% of this air is bypassed:
a. The air travels via a narrow tube near bottom of the capsule to
the tail.
b. A nozzle at the tail expands the flow generating thrust to mitigate
some of the small amounts of aerodynamic and bearing drag.
3. Up to 0.44 lb/s (0.2 kg/s) of air is cooled and compressed an additional
5.2:1 for the passenger version with additional cooling afterward.
a. This air is stored in onboard composite overwrap pressure vessels.
b. The stored air is eventually consumed by the air bearings to
maintain distance between the capsule and tube walls.
4. An onboard water tank is used for cooling of the air.
a. Water is pumped at 0.30 lb/s (0.14 kg/s) through two intercoolers
(639 lb or 290 kg total mass of coolant).
b. The steam is stored onboard until reaching the station.
c. Water and steam tanks are changed automatically at each stop.
5. The compressor is powered by a 436 hp (325 kW) onboard electric
motor:
a. The motor has an estimated mass of 372 lb (169 kg), which
includes power electronics.
b. An estimated 3,400 lb (1,500 kg) of batteries provides 45 minutes
of onboard compressor power, which is more than sufficient for
the travel time with added reserve backup power.
c. Onboard batteries are changed at each stop and charged at the
stations.
Intro
The first several pages will attempt to describe the design in everyday
language, keeping numbers to a minimum and avoiding formulas and jargon. I
apologize in advance for my loose use of language and imperfect analogies.
The second section is for those with a technical background. There are no
doubt errors of various kinds and superior optimizations for elements of the
system. Feedback would be most welcome – please send to
hyperloop[at]spacex.com or hyperloop[at]teslamotors.com. I would like to thank
my excellent compadres at both companies for their help in putting this
together.
Background
When the California “high speed” rail was approved, I was quite disappointed,
as I know many others were too. How could it be that the home of Silicon
Valley and JPL – doing incredible things like indexing all the world’s knowledge
and putting rovers on Mars – would build a bullet train that is both one of the
most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world? Note, I am
hedging my statement slightly by saying “one of”. The head of the California
high speed rail project called me to complain that it wasn’t the very slowest
bullet train nor the very most expensive per mile.
The underlying motive for a statewide mass transit system is a good one. It
would be great to have an alternative to flying or driving, but obviously only if
it is actually better than flying or driving. The train in question would be both
slower, more expensive to operate (if unsubsidized) and less safe by two orders
of magnitude than flying, so why would anyone use it?
If we are to make a massive investment in a new transportation system, then
the return should by rights be equally massive. Compared to the alternatives, it
should ideally be:
Safer
Faster
Lower cost
More convenient
Immune to weather
Sustainably self-powering
Resistant to Earthquakes
Not disruptive to those along the route
Is there truly a new mode of transport – a fifth mode after planes, trains, cars
and boats – that meets those criteria and is practical to implement? Many ideas
for a system with most of those properties have been proposed and should be
acknowledged, reaching as far back as Robert Goddard’s to proposals in recent
decades by the Rand Corporation and ET3.
Unfortunately, none of these have panned out. As things stand today, there is
not even a short distance demonstration system operating in test pilot mode
anywhere in the world, let alone something that is robust enough for public
transit. They all possess, it would seem, one or more fatal flaws that prevent
them from coming to fruition.
Constraining the Problem
The Hyperloop (or something similar) is, in my opinion, the right solution for
the specific case of high traffic city pairs that are less than about 1500 km or
900 miles apart. Around that inflection point, I suspect that supersonic air
travel ends up being faster and cheaper. With a high enough altitude and the
right geometry, the sonic boom noise on the ground would be no louder than
current airliners, so that isn’t a showstopper. Also, a quiet supersonic plane
immediately solves every long distance city pair without the need for a vast
new worldwide infrastructure.
However, for a sub several hundred mile journey, having a supersonic plane is
rather pointless, as you would spend almost all your time slowly ascending and
descending and very little time at cruise speed. In order to go fast, you need to
be at high altitude where the air density drops exponentially, as air at sea level
becomes as thick as molasses (not literally, but you get the picture) as you
approach sonic velocity.
So What is Hyperloop Anyway?
Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome
(someone please do this), the only option for super fast travel is to build a tube
over or under the ground that contains a special environment. This is where
things get tricky.
At one extreme of the potential solutions is some enlarged version of the old
pneumatic tubes used to send mail and packages within and between buildings.
You could, in principle, use very powerful fans to push air at high speed
through a tube and propel people-sized pods all the way from LA to San
Francisco. However, the friction of a 350 mile long column of air moving at
anywhere near sonic velocity against the inside of the tube is so stupendously
high that this is impossible for all practical purposes.
Another extreme is the approach, advocated by Rand and ET3, of drawing a
hard or near hard vacuum in the tube and then using an electromagnetic
suspension. The problem with this approach is that it is incredibly hard to
maintain a near vacuum in a room, let alone 700 miles (round trip) of large
tube with dozens of station gateways and thousands of pods entering and
exiting every day. All it takes is one leaky seal or a small crack somewhere in
the hundreds of miles of tube and the whole system stops working.
However, a low pressure (vs. almost no pressure) system set to a level where
standard commercial pumps could easily overcome an air leak and the
transport pods could handle variable air density would be inherently robust.
Unfortunately, this means that there is a non-trivial amount of air in the tube
and leads us straight into another problem.
Overcoming the Kantrowitz Limit
Whenever you have a capsule or pod (I am using the words interchangeably)
moving at high speed through a tube containing air, there is a minimum tube to
pod area ratio below which you will choke the flow. What this means is that if
the walls of the tube and the capsule are too close together, the capsule will
behave like a syringe and eventually be forced to push the entire column of air
in the system. Not good.
Nature’s top speed law for a given tube to pod area ratio is known as the
Kantrowitz limit. This is highly problematic, as it forces you to either go slowly
or have a super huge diameter tube. Interestingly, there are usually two
solutions to the Kantrowitz limit – one where you go slowly and one where you
go really, really fast.
The latter solution sounds mighty appealing at first, until you realize that going
several thousand miles per hour means that you can’t tolerate even wide turns
without painful g loads. For a journey from San Francisco to LA, you will also
experience a rather intense speed up and slow down. And, when you get right
down to it, going through transonic buffet in a tube is just fundamentally a
dodgy prospect.
Both for trip comfort and safety, it would be best to travel at high subsonic
speeds for a 350 mile journey. For much longer journeys, such as LA to NY, it
would be worth exploring super high speeds and this is probably technically
feasible, but, as mentioned above, I believe the economics would probably
favor a supersonic plane.
The approach that I believe would overcome the Kantrowitz limit is to mount
an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod that actively transfers high
pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel. This is like having a pump
in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure.
It would also simultaneously solve another problem, which is how to create a
low friction suspension system when traveling at over 700 mph. Wheels don’t
work very well at that sort of speed, but a cushion of air does. Air bearings,
which use the same basic principle as an air hockey table, have been
demonstrated to work at speeds of Mach 1.1 with very low friction. In this
case, however, it is the pod that is producing the air cushion, rather than the
tube, as it is important to make the tube as low cost and simple as possible.
That then begs the next question of whether a battery can store enough energy
to power a fan for the length of the journey with room to spare. Based on our
calculations, this is no problem, so long as the energy used to accelerate the
pod is not drawn from the battery pack.
This is where the external linear electric motor comes in, which is simply a
round induction motor (like the one in the Tesla Model S) rolled flat. This
would accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic
reboost roughly every 70 miles. The linear electric motor is needed for as little
as ~1% of the tube length, so is not particularly costly.
Making the Economics Work
The pods and linear motors are relatively minor expenses compared to the tube
itself – several hundred million dollars at most, compared with several billion
dollars for the tube. Even several billion is a low number when compared with
several tens of billion proposed for the track of the California rail project.
The key advantages of a tube vs. a railway track are that it can be built above
the ground on pylons and it can be built in prefabricated sections that are
dropped in place and joined with an orbital seam welder. By building it on
pylons, you can almost entirely avoid the need to buy land by following
alongside the mostly very straight California Interstate 5 highway, with only
minor deviations when the highway makes a sharp turn.
Even when the Hyperloop path deviates from the highway, it will cause minimal
disruption to farmland roughly comparable to a tree or telephone pole, which
farmers deal with all the time. A ground based high speed rail system by
comparison needs up to a 100 ft wide swath of dedicated land to build up
foundations for both directions, forcing people to travel for several miles just
to get to the other side of their property. It is also noisy, with nothing to
contain the sound, and needs unsightly protective fencing to prevent animals,
people or vehicles from getting on to the track. Risk of derailment is also not
to be taken lightly, as demonstrated by several recent fatal train accidents.
Earthquakes and Expansion Joints
A ground based high speed rail system is susceptible to Earthquakes and needs
frequent expansion joints to deal with thermal expansion/contraction and
subtle, large scale land movement.
By building a system on pylons, where the tube is not rigidly fixed at any point,
you can dramatically mitigate Earthquake risk and avoid the need for expansion
joints. Tucked away inside each pylon, you could place two adjustable lateral
(XY) dampers and one vertical (Z) damper.
These would absorb the small length changes between pylons due to thermal
changes, as well as long form subtle height changes. As land slowly settles to a
new position over time, the damper neutral position can be adjusted
accordingly. A telescoping tube, similar to the boxy ones used to access
airplanes at airports would be needed at the end stations to address the
cumulative length change of the tube.
Can it Really be Self-Powering?
For the full explanation, please see the technical section, but the short answer
is that by placing solar panels on top of the tube, the Hyperloop can generate
far in excess of the energy needed to operate. This takes into account storing
enough energy in battery packs to operate at night and for periods of extended
cloudy weather. The energy could also be stored in the form of compressed air
that then runs an electric fan in reverse to generate energy, as demonstrated
by LightSail.
Hyperloop Preliminary Design Study
Technical Section
1. Abstract
Existing conventional modes of transportation of people consists of four unique
types: rail, road, water, and air. These modes of transport tend to be either
relatively slow (i.e., road and water), expensive (i.e., air), or a combination of
relatively slow and expensive (i.e., rail). Hyperloop is a new mode of transport
that seeks to change this paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for
people and goods. Hyperloop is also unique in that it is an open design concept,
similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can help
advance the Hyperloop design and bring it from concept to reality.
Hyperloop consists of a low pressure tube with capsules that are transported at
both low and high speeds throughout the length of the tube. The capsules are
supported on a cushion of air, featuring pressurized air and aerodynamic lift.
The capsules are accelerated via a magnetic linear accelerator affixed at
various stations on the low pressure tube with rotors contained in each capsule.
Passengers may enter and exit Hyperloop at stations located either at the ends
of the tube, or branches along the tube length.
In this study, the initial route, preliminary design, and logistics of the
Hyperloop transportation system have been derived. The system consists of
capsules that travel between Los Angeles, California and San Francisco,
California. The total trip time is approximately half an hour, with capsules
departing as often as every 30 seconds from each terminal and carrying 28
people each. This gives a total of 7.4 million people each way that can be
transported each year on Hyperloop. The total cost of Hyperloop in this
analysis is under $6 billion USD. Amortizing this capital cost over 20 years and
adding daily operational costs gives a total of about $20 USD (in current year
dollars) plus operating costs per one-way ticket on the passenger Hyperloop.
Background
The corridor between San Francisco, California and Los Angeles, California is
one of the most often traveled corridors in the American West. The current
practical modes of transport for passengers between these two major
population centers include:
1. Road (inexpensive, slow, usually not environmentally sound)
2. Air (expensive, fast, not environmentally sound)
3. Rail (expensive, slow, often environmentally sound)
A new mode of transport is needed that has benefits of the current modes
without the negative aspects of each. This new high speed transportation
system has the following requirements:
1. Ready when the passenger is ready to travel (road)
2. Inexpensive (road)
3. Fast (air)
4. Environmentally friendly (rail/road via electric cars)
The current contender for a new transportation system between southern and
northern California is the “California High Speed Rail.” The parameters
outlining this system include:
1. Currently $68.4 billion USD proposed cost
2. Average speed of 164 mph (264 kph) between San Francisco and Los
Angeles
3. Travel time of 2 hours and 38 minutes between San Francisco and Los
Angeles
a. Compare with 1 hour and 15 minutes by air
b. Compare with 5 hours and 30 minutes by car
4. Average one-way ticket price of $105 one-way (reference)
a. Compare with $158 round trip by air for September 2013
b. Compare with $115 round trip by road ($4/gallon with 30 mpg
vehicle)
A new high speed mode of transport is desired between Los Angeles and San
Francisco; however, the proposed California High Speed Rail does not reduce
current trip times or reduce costs relative to existing modes of transport. This
preliminary design study proposes a new mode of high speed transport that
reduces both the travel time and travel cost between Los Angeles and San
Francisco. Options are also included to increase the transportation system to
other major population centers across California. It is also worth noting the
energy cost of this system is less than any currently existing mode of transport
Hyperloop Transportation System
Hyperloop (Figure 2 through Figure 3) is a proposed transportation system for
traveling between Los Angeles, California, and San Francisco, California in 35
minutes. The Hyperloop consists of several distinct components, including:
1. Capsule:
a. Sealed capsules carrying 28 passengers each that travel along the
interior of the tube depart on average every 2 minutes from Los
Angeles or San Francisco (up to every 30 seconds during peak
usage hours).
b. A larger system has also been sized that allows transport of 3 full
size automobiles with passengers to travel in the capsule.
c. The capsules are separated within the tube by approximately 23
miles (37 km) on average during operation.
d. The capsules are supported via air bearings that operate using a
compressed air reservoir and aerodynamic lift.
2. Tube:
a. The tube is made of steel. Two tubes will be welded together in a
side by side configuration to allow the capsules to travel both
directions.
b. Pylons are placed every 100 ft (30 m) to support the tube.
c. Solar arrays will cover the top of the tubes in order to provide
power to the system.
3. Propulsion:
a. Linear accelerators are constructed along the length of the tube
at various locations to accelerate the capsules.
b. Stators are located on the capsules to transfer momentum to the
capsules via the linear accelerators.
4. Route:
a. There will be a station at Los Angeles and San Francisco. Several
stations along the way will be possible with splits in the tube.
b. The majority of the route will follow I-5 and the tube will be
constructed in the median.
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
The maximum width is 4.43 ft (1.35 m) and maximum height is 6.11 ft (1.10
m). With rounded corners, this is equivalent to a 15 ft2
(1.4 m2
) frontal area,
not including any propulsion or suspension components.
The aerodynamic power requirements at 700 mph (1,130 kph) is around only
134 hp (100 kW) with a drag force of only 72 lbf (320 N), or about the same
force as the weight of one oversized checked bag at the airport. The doors on
each side will open in a gullwing (or possibly sliding) manner to allow easy
access during loading and unloading. The luggage compartment will be at the
front or rear of the capsule.
The overall structure weight is expected to be near 6,800 lb (3,100 kg)
including the luggage compartments and door mechanism. The overall cost of
the structure including manufacturing is targeted to be no more than $245,000.
Hyperloop Passenger Plus Vehicle Capsule
The passenger plus vehicle version of the Hyperloop capsule has an increased
frontal area of 43 ft2
(4.0 m2
), not including any propulsion or suspension
components. This accounts for enough width to fit a vehicle as large as the
Tesla Model X.
The aerodynamic power requirement at 700 mph (1,130 kph) is around only 382
hp (285 kW) with a drag force of 205 lbf (910 N). The doors on each side will
open in a gullwing (or possibly sliding) manner to allow accommodate loading
of vehicles, passengers, or freight.
The overall structure weight is expected to be near 7,700 lb (3,500 kg)
including the luggage compartments and door mechanism. The overall cost of
the structure including manufacturing is targeted to be no more than $275,000.
4.1.2. Interior
The interior of the capsule is specifically designed with passenger safety and
comfort in mind. The seats conform well to the body to maintain comfort
during the high speed accelerations experienced during travel. Beautiful
landscape will be displayed in the cabin and each passenger will have access
their own personal entertainment system.
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
The Hyperloop passenger capsule (Figure 8 and Figure 9) overall interior weight
is expected to be near 5,500 lb (2,500 kg) including the seats, restraint
systems, interior and door panels, luggage compartments, and entertainment
displays. The overall cost of the interior components is targeted to be no more
than $255,000.
Hyperloop Passenger Plus Vehicle Capsule
The Hyperloop passenger plus vehicle capsule overall interior weight is
expected to be near 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) including the seats, restraint systems,
interior and door panels, luggage compartments, and entertainment displays.
The overall cost of the interior components is targeted to be no more than
$185,000.
4.1.3. Compressor
One important feature of the capsule is the onboard compressor, which serves
two purposes. This system allows the capsule to traverse the relatively narrow
tube without choking flow that travels between the capsule and the tube walls
(resulting in a build-up of air mass in front of the capsule and increasing the
drag) by compressing air that is bypassed through the capsule. It also supplies
air to air bearings that support the weight of the capsule throughout the
journey.
The air processing occurs as follows (Figure 10 and Figure 11) (note mass
counting is tracked in Section 4.1.4):
Hyperloop Passenger Capsule
1. Tube air is compressed with a compression ratio of 20:1 via an axial
compressor.
2. Up to 60% of this air is bypassed:
a. The air travels via a narrow tube near bottom of the capsule to
the tail.
b. A nozzle at the tail expands the flow generating thrust to mitigate
some of the small amounts of aerodynamic and bearing drag.
3. Up to 0.44 lb/s (0.2 kg/s) of air is cooled and compressed an additional
5.2:1 for the passenger version with additional cooling afterward.
a. This air is stored in onboard composite overwrap pressure vessels.
b. The stored air is eventually consumed by the air bearings to
maintain distance between the capsule and tube walls.
4. An onboard water tank is used for cooling of the air.
a. Water is pumped at 0.30 lb/s (0.14 kg/s) through two intercoolers
(639 lb or 290 kg total mass of coolant).
b. The steam is stored onboard until reaching the station.
c. Water and steam tanks are changed automatically at each stop.
5. The compressor is powered by a 436 hp (325 kW) onboard electric
motor:
a. The motor has an estimated mass of 372 lb (169 kg), which
includes power electronics.
b. An estimated 3,400 lb (1,500 kg) of batteries provides 45 minutes
of onboard compressor power, which is more than sufficient for
the travel time with added reserve backup power.
c. Onboard batteries are changed at each stop and charged at the
stations.