Hyperloop

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Hyperloop Rules Here

Dubai is surging ahead in the race to build the fastest mass transit network on the planet.

The city is exploring possible routes for the first ever Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that uses a pipeline to carry passengers and goods in levitating capsules.

"[Dubai] is our number one priority so we will do everything to make that happen," said Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd, speaking after signing the company's first commercial deal with local transport authorities.

Hyperloop One is also considering the feasibility of building tracks in other countries, including Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K.

But Dubai now has a head start and its first passenger track could be operating by 2021.

One of the routes being considered -- between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates -- is 102 miles and typically takes more than an hour by car. Hyperloop would cut that journey time to just 12 minutes.

Dubai is home to the world's busiest international airport. Using Hyperloop, passengers could be in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, within 48 minutes, and Doha, the capital of Qatar, in 23 minutes.

"As the central global transport hub, pursuing the implementation of a Hyperloop in the UAE makes sense," Lloyd said.

Here's how it works: Electric propulsion moves a capsule, or autonomous vehicle, along the pipe in a low pressure environment, to reach speeds of at least 740 miles per hour -- unprecedented for a ground-based system.

In May, Hyperloop One had its first public test of its acceleration technology and announced that it had raised $80 million in new funding.

Dubai's DP World, the world's third largest port operator, has also invested $50 million and is already working with Hyperloop One on a cargo track planned for 2020.

The technology is being developed in the United States but the plan is to marry that innovation with the transport routes in the United Arab Emirates, and eventually the Gulf region.

"Demonstrate the prototype, have a viable idea, then have the discussion about how to finance it, how to regulate it but we can prove it works. This is the show me technology and were going to show the world," Lloyd told CNNMoney.

Hyperloop is the vision of Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, who made the technology patent-free in a bid to encourage international scientific collaboration around the futuristic concept.

SpaceX is revolutionizing terrestrial transportation through its Hyperloop services. The company currently provides these services to innovators and universities across the world interested in high-speed transportation technology and solutions. The Hyperloop system built by SpaceX at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, is approximately one mile in length with a six foot outer diameter.

HYPERLOOP

HTTPS://WWW.SPACEX.COM/SITES/SPACEX/FILES/HYPERLOOP_ALPHA.PDF

One Scientist: 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.

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.

3. 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 (Figure 1). The only system that comes close to matching the low energy requirements of Hyperloop is the fully electric Tesla Model S.

Hyperloop Transportation System

Hyperloop 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. Rotors 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.   

In addition to these aspects of the Hyperloop, safety and cost will also be addressed in this study.

The Hyperloop is sized to allow expansion as the network becomes increasingly popular. The capacity would be on average 840 passengers per hour which is more than sufficient to transport all of the 6 million passengers traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco areas per year. In addition, this accounts for 70% of those travelers to use the Hyperloop during rush hour. The lower cost of traveling on Hyperloop is likely to result in increased demand, in which case the time between capsule departures could be significantly shortened.