Over a press conference in August 2013, the South African-born and worldwide active entrepreneur Elon Musk proposed, under the designation "Hyperloop" a novel transportation system, and described it in detail in a concept paper. Remarkably, Musk does not ask for any license fees on the proposed concept – therefore, since 2013 numerous private enterprises have been established for the development and marketing of Hyperloop-based systems. Since the first publication, Hyperloop has been surrounded by a collection of myths, ranging from science fiction to envisaging an all-encompassing solution for all transit problems in the world. The approach behind this system is to organize public challenges for the solution of key problems – for example for finding the most suitable routes for Hyperloop or the so-called pod competition could certainly be advantageous in other sectors as well.
What is the Hyperloop? Who will use it and What is its use?
The Hyperloop is the
new and fastest form of transportation. It is a high-speed transportation
system in which specialized pods are accelerated through a low-pressure tube to
achieve speeds near the speed of sound. It is a system that travels at high
speeds through low-pressure steel tubes without any friction. This allows the
pods to travel up to 750 miles per hour. Around 20-28 individuals can fit per
capsule. One capsule can travel at a moment through the Hyperloop, leaving at
rush hour every 30 seconds or so. “By building a system on pylons, where the
tube is not rigidly fixed at any point, one can dramatically mitigate
Earthquake risk and avoid the need for expansion joints. One could place two
adjustable laterals (XY) dampers and one vertical (Z) damper. These would help
in the absorption of the minor changes between pylons due to change in
temperature, as well as long-form subtle height changes. The land then slowly
settles into a new position, the damper neutral position is adjusted according
to that”. People traveling long distances every day to reach their destination
would probably love to use the Hyperloop because it would decrease their travel
time by a significant amount. People would use the Hyperloop because, it will
be cost-effective, environmentally friendly, it will be faster and safer than
subways.
The Physics behind The Hyperloop
The Hyperloop uses the principle of Magnetic Levitation. Magnetic levitation occurs when an object is suspended in the air using only magnetic fields and no other support. Through this method, magnets are placed on the underside of the capsules in a Halbach array. These emphases the magnetic force of the magnets on one side of the array while almost canceling out the field on the other side. The magnetic fields cause the pods to float when they pass the electromagnetic coils that are embedded in the track. The thrust from linear motors helps in propelling the pods in the forward direction. Also, they use a passive magnetic levitation system where pod-side permanent magnets repel a passive track, with the only input energy coming from the speed of the pod. In the system, air pressure is lowered in the tunnels using air pumps to aid the pods' movement. The low air pressure reduces drag so that only a fraction of electricity is needed to achieve high speeds.
Social and Environmental impacts of the Hyperloop
The Hyperloop can impact our society in various positive ways. The Hyperloop is such a big project which requires a huge team as well. This leads to people having more job opportunities in the job market. Also, being able to travel to and from cities in a matter of minutes could open up opportunities to new businesses. This means companies could hire from a broader talent pool and workers could have more employment opportunities. “Brogan Balbriggan, Hyperloop One’s chief technology officer and co-founder, told Tech Insider that the Hyperloop system will cut out a lot of the time-consuming parts of traveling, like trekking to an airport and waiting in long ticket lines for hours.” Because of these Hyperloop stations will be built in city centers and will include technologies that make loading and unloading passengers extremely easy.
Potential Benefits of Hyperloop Technology
The main benefit of hyperloop transportation will be to enable faster, more convenient, energy-efficient, and potentially cheaper transit between two points, as compared to existing modes of transport. If such systems were to capture a significant share of the transport market, they might also alleviate congestion on roads, rails, and in the air. This system of transportation is much faster than automotive or rail systems, and rivals or exceeds air travel speeds. Another factor is location and ease of access. An ideal hyperloop system has been projected, to reduce travel time by air by eliminating or greatly reducing time spent at either end of the journey. Hyperloop proponents also propose to limit the number of intermediate stops between the origin and destination.
This offers another opportunity for time savings relative to other surface modes of transport such as high-speed rail. Convenience is another possible benefit for passengers using the hyperloop. As described, passenger hyperloop systems would dispatch modestly-sized pods of 20-30 people with relatively high frequency, that is, with a pod launched every two minutes or less. While comparing it to a high-speed train, with its rail cars all connected, hyperloop systems also have the flexibility to move pods in cohorts like rail, or independently by routing them along the way to multiple destinations. This idea might reduce traffic congestion by reducing the number of trips via private vehicles on interconnecting highways, bypass roadways, and circumferential beltways between and around cities.
Challenges with Hyperloop Technology
Although there are several likely benefits of hyperloop systems, there are some challenges in their way as well. In addition to that pod manufacturing and purchasing of supporting equipment at scale; costs are unknown and could be potentially high.
The Hyperloop Alpha authors estimated costs of around $16 million per mile for a passenger system. The high speeds also place restrictions on turning radii of the guideway curvatures, which may dictate more expensive access to the ways. If a hyperloop station is away from the final destinations of passengers, the first-mile/last-mile transit times may balance the time-saving advantages of the hyperloop. Safety is one of the critical aspects of a hyperloop system, particularly given the high speeds and near-vacuum conditions of the tubes. Hazardous situations could be identified by network connectivity among pods and signal-approaching pods to begin emergency braking. Such situations highlight the importance of safety, as well as the potential vulnerabilities of a hyperloop system, where a single point of failure or the stoppage of anyone pod might require the entire system upstream of the stopped pod to be shut down. This may raise safety concerns, due to the proximity of parts of the system to population centers.
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