Futuristic transportation HYPERLOOP
Hyperloop is the fastest passenger transportation system also called as the fifth mode of transportation or the transportation of future.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX presented the idea and concept of Hyperloop in 2012 as the future transportation system. Which involves the pods moving insides the sealed tubes slashing the travel times. For example the present travel time between Lahore and Karachi is 16 hours on train will be just around 1 hour.
How does it work?
The passenger capsules aren't propelled by air pressure like in vacuum tubes, but by two electromagnetic motors. It is aimed to travel at a top speed of 760 miles per hour. The tube tracks do have a vacuum, but not completely free of air. Instead, they have low pressure air inside of them. Most things moving through air-tubes will end up compressing the air in the front thus, providing a cushion of air that slows the object down. But the hyperloop will feature a compressor fan in the front of the capsule. The compressor fan can redirect air to the back of the capsule, but mostly air will be sent to the air bearings. Air bearings are ski like paddles that levitate the capsules above the surface of the tube to reduce friction.
It could be that the Hyperloop is essentially a pneumatic transport system (PTS) in the form of a closed tube that loops between Los Angeles and San Francisco. People ride in capsules that travel within the tube at around 1,000 km/h (620 mph), but the air in the tube also moves at that speed, so the capsules move with very little air drag. Such a system is simpler to design if the airflow is subsonic, which is in agreement with Musk’s claims.
The airflow would lose energy against the inner walls of the tube, so those are perforated with tiny jets that are supplied with high pressure air, which act as do the jets on an air hockey table to dramatically reduce the friction. The separation between capsules makes an air cushion that prevents capsules from colliding in the tube, and the air jets on the inside of the tube levitate the capsules within the tube.
Because the air is moving at the same rate as are the capsules, the air can be kept moving by using the capsules as “paddles” to push the air along faster. The simplest way of doing this is to use the capsules as the armature of sections of the tube equipped to act as linear magnetic drive segments. That is, as rail-gun projectiles. If the capsules are forced to travel faster, so is the airflow. Power failure? Hook the drive units up backward to pull electric energy out of the PTS.
A serious concern in high-speed ground transportation is to keep the g-loads small enough for the general population. A plane taking off can generate about a g of acceleration, so let’s take that as our limit. To accelerate a capsule to 1,000 km/h (620 mph) for insertion into the tube at one g of acceleration takes a track about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) in length, which is long, but not a substantial fraction of the tube’s length.
When traveling at 1,000 km/h (620 mph), the tightest curve radius keeping accelerations at one g is about 9 km (5.6 mph). This is a more difficult limit to arrange, as it means the track of the tube must be very nearly straight. Building such a PTS on the space between the opposing lanes of a highway system won’t work, save perhaps in very flat states. The biggest challenge is likely to be finding a place to put such a PTS.
The air between capsules acts as cushions to prevent two capsules from colliding within the tube. However, what happens in a catastrophic failure, such as total power loss? The first change is that the air hockey levitation of the capsules becomes ineffective. This can be prepared for by placing a series of small wheels on the sides of the capsules. The second change is that the drag force on the walls of the tube increases to its usual level, causing the air and the entrained capsules to come to a rather slow stop.
The tube track is designed to be immune to weather and earthquakes. The pillars that rise the tube above the ground have a small foot-print that can sway in the case of an earthquake. Each of the tube sections can move around flexibly of the train ships because there isn't a constant track that capsules rely on. And solar panels on the top the track supply power to the periodic motors.
Now suppose the Hyperloop track in Pakistan between Lahore and Karachi with a distance of more than 1000+ kilometers which takes more than 16 hours of journey on a train for now. But on Hyperloop the travel time will be shorten to just 1 hour.
Hyperloop between the Karachi and Lahore will move at a speed of 1000+ kph in a sealed elevated tubes above the ground reducing the travel time to just 1 hour and 14 minutes according to the Hyperloop One’s estimation between this track.
First commercial Hyperloop track could built in Dubai between Dubai and Abu Dhabi (Capital of United Arab Emirates) which will reduce the travel time to just 12 minutes. An agreement between Hyperloop One and Roads and transportation authority (RTA) signed last year to possibly built the first Hyperloop One in Dubai.
So you can expect the Hyperloop in your city in near future when futuristic transportation like this will be real.
Originally published in techsoach by HAMZA ABDULLAH.
