Hyperloop

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page

1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………..2

2.0 Description of the Innovation

2.1 Physical Features and Functions………………………………………4

2.2 Contributions to the Society…………………………………………...8

3.0 Analysis of the Innovation/Invention………………………………….......9

4.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………...12

5.0 Sources…………………………………………………………………….13

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1.0 Introduction

Public transport is a form of transportation that is made available for public. Most of the times,
public transport charge set fares and run on fixed routes on scheduled times. Some modes of
public transportation that we most likely use or see in our everyday in a bustling city lives are
trolley buses, city buses, trams, passenger trains and rapid transits. While for intercity
transportation, it is dominated by intercity coaches and rails for landways travelling, airlines
for airways and intercity ferries for waterways and seaways.

However, there is a new mode of public transportation that will soon come to meet us,
which is Hyperloop. So, what is a hyperloop? Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes
with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or
friction. To make it simple, just imagine an amazingly fast capsule that goes into a vacuum
tube.

The idea for Hyperloop was firstly mentioned by Elon Musk in 2012 at a PandolaDaily
event in Santa Monica, California. The name Hyperloop was chosen as the pod that will carry
passengers and cargo will go through a tube called loop. In August 2013, Musk released 58
pages of an alpha design for his Hyperloop titled Hyperloop Alpha. Since then, research and
development had been done by Elon Musk and his companies, the Tesla and SpaceX. Musk
also has open himself for some feedbacks regarding his new idea to "see if the people can find
ways to improve it".

By late 2015, Musk had made a globally opened annual competition called
the Hyperloop Pod Competition, sponsored by SpaceX. The goal is to explore and venture
various ideas from participants all over the world regarding the concept and the design of pod
for the Hyperloop. Other than Musk himself, there are few other companies participated in this
“Hyperloop movement” to further pursue this concept. Some of those other companies are,
Virgin hyperloop One, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), TransPod, DGW
Hyperloop, Hardt Global Mobility, Zeleros and Hyper Poland. Currently the main lead of this
movement is the Virgin Hyperloop One company.

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 So, what are the purposes of Hyperloop? One of the objectives is to cut the travelling
time between cities using landways. The greater the speed means less travelling time.
Passengers or cargo could arrive to desired destinations faster. As a comparison, the current
fastest train in the world, the Shanghai Maglevs top speed is 267 mph (429.695 km/h) which
is quite low to be compared with Hyperloops speed. A company called Virgin Hyperloop One
is currently developing their hyperloop and claimed that their final product could travel at 670
mph (1080 km/h). The goal is to make Hyperloops speed on par with the airlines speed, making
it as an alternative to airways travelling. This is a very delightful news for people who are afraid
of height.

Secondly, is to provide another new sustainable and environmental-friendly

transportation. Hyperloop will serve this purpose as it fully relies on electrical energy which
means zero carbon emission. Solar powered energy could also be utilised to run the system by
installing solar panels on top of the Hyperloops tube. Hyperloop also will consume less energy
from what the solar panels will generate. Plus, Hyperloop will not cause any sound pollution
as its pods could quietly glide in the tube.

Thus, this report will focus on explaining briefly regarding Hyperloop mechanism to
show how it will function and finally discussing the chance of it being successful in near future.

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2.0 Descriptions of the Innovation

2.1 Physical Features and Functions

Hyperloop are consisted of two main features, its tubes, and pods. This chapter will discuss
about these two components.

The first component will be the Hyperloop Pod. Hyperloops pod or also known as
capsule is a sealed capsule that could safely carry either passengers or cargo. Hyperloop pod
design are distinctive from one another, depending on the company that designed it as the pod
is still under research and development process. Which means, it does not have any design
format that the engineers could refer to, they would have to develop their own design. However,
I will still provide some common characteristics of a Hyperloop pod.

VHO’s Hyperloop pod design. From: https://medium.com/thebeammagazine/the-race-for-a-new-high-speed-mode-of-transportation-

97d38acf8f81

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 Design of the Hyperloop capsule by HTT.

The Hyperloop pods is cylindrical in shape with most of them having a bullet-train like
front to provide aerodynamic. The pod size will be around 2.23m in diameter and a passenger
pod could fit in around 28 people or at a time and they will all seat comfortably on seats
provided. HTT however has revealed that their pod will be slightly bigger as it could carry 40
people in full capacity while still being able to travel at 760mph.

Most of Hyperloop developers prefers to utilise carbon fibre in making most of the pod
parts like its frame, shell, chassis, and others. Carbon fibre is a polymer that is as strong as steel
but lightweight at the same time. Making it the best material for the shell as it is capable to
withstand the high pressure and force in the tube without sacrificing the speed.

The pod will move from a destination to another on its track inside the tube by levitating
to reduce the friction produced. It will do so by either using air bearings or magnetic levitation
technology, depending on the developers’ preferences. Even so, as mentioned before,
Hyperloop is still under research and development process, new type of technologies might be
developed to levitate and launching the pod forward more efficiently than what we have now.
But for the time being, I will be explaining about the two that I have mentioned.

The first technology, which is air bearings was proposed of its usage by Elon Musk in
his earlier white papers. By using this technology, the pod will be lifted a few inches above the
ground by compressing air between the pods underneath and the tracks surface. The pod also
will be pushed forward by using linear accelerators that are constructed along the length of the
tube at various locations.

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 However, some other companies like HTT prefer to use another option which is
magnetic levitation technology. Magnetic levitation is a widely used technology in the train
industries as most of the top speed trains in the world use it to make their train cars levitate.
Rows of magnets are placed along the track and underneath the capsule. The magnets will repel
each other forcing the train to levitate once it is driven forward by an electric motor. This
technology has proven itself capable of moving trains at high speed. Thus, HTT decided to use
it for their pod system as the main idea and application are similar.

The second component will be the Hyperloop tube. Hyperloop tube is a long narrow
air-tight near-vacuum cylinder in which the pods will travel. The near-vacuum atmosphere
inside the tube is equivalent to the atmosphere 50km above the sea-level, which means up in
the sky. That condition will be achieved by pumping air out of the tubes using vacuum pump.
The reason is to minimize the amount of air resistance inside the tube which is one of the main
factors of speed reduction. The tube will be built in pair next to each other to accommodate
both directions from point A to point B.

The prototype of the Hyperloop structure and tubes by HTT.

The tubes are made of steel with 25 mm of wall thickness which is strong enough to
withstand force similar to close-range gunshot. However, alternative tube design in concrete
is also considered (ultra-high-performance steel fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). Solid
and airtight wall is needed to withstand the force of the atmosphere from the outside as it is
higher compared to the near-vacuum atmosphere inside the tubes thus, preventing buckling and
leakage.

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 The tubes will be made available above and under the ground. The above-ground tubes
which will be 3.5 meter in diameter, will be supported by reinforced-concrete pylons to lift the
tubes from the ground. Elevating the tube above the ground will be resulting benefits which
are, lowering the cost of land acquisition, resilient to earthquakes, eliminates the possibility of
collision with road traffic, and will provide eco-opportunities. Solar panels will also be installed
on top of the tubes to provide the energy needed to run the Hyperloop system.

For the underground facilities, both tubes will be placed inside an 8.5 meter in diameter
tunnel. The mechanisation for underground tubes is similar with the above-ground tubes. The
only difference is underground tube will be underground and vice versa which means, no solar
panels for underground tubes.

Hyperloop tubes will be linked to portals and stations that will complete Hyperloop
system. Passengers would need to go to that portal or stations to ride the pod that will send
them to their destinations. Several pods can depart per minute and the system doesn’t require
stops at every stations.

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2.2 Contributions to the Society

Firstly, the most obvious benefit that the society will gain is the ability to travel faster
from one location to another. Hyperloop will travel at supersonic speed, even faster than most
commercial types of transportation like airline, trains, busses, cars, and others. This tremendous
speed will cut the travelling time between locations drastically. The time saved can be used to
do more productive activities rather than sitting and sleeping in trains and airplanes for hours

Secondly, Hyperloop is a very sustainable and eco-friendly transportation. Hyperloop

pod will be using electrical energy that it draws from solar panels that are installed on top of
the tubes. This means that Hyperloop will not be producing emission unlike most fuel powered
cars and airplanes that we are currently using. Gasses that are emitted by fuel-powered vehicle
are harmful to the environment as the chemicals in the gasses may cause air pollution, and the
thinning of ozone layer, which is the main factor of global warming.

Just imagine the amount of gasses emitted by those fuel-powered vehicles that travel
hundred kilometres to arrive at their destinations. It would not be a surprise if the global
warming problem continue to get worse every year. Thus, by using electric powered
transportation such as Hyperloop to travel, we may reduce the amount of gasses emitted every
day.

Thirdly, Hyperloop might open the possibility of working in different cities without
actually moving to others. As an example, a Perak citizen may actually work in his office or
headquarter in Kuala Lumpur city without actually moving to stay in Kuala Lumpur as with
Hyperloop which will travel up to 1080 km/h, a person may travel from Perak to Kuala Lumpur
in just 12 minutes approximately. This might help us to resolve the overpopulated city problem
as people may be evenly dispersed across the whole nation, but in this case, the whole
Malaysian Western Peninsular. Students, prominently university students, may also gain
benefits from this as they may travel to their campuses from their respective homes without
concerning about time and distances.

Furthermore, Hyperloop is considered as public transportation. For a public

transportation to run their system will requires a lot of work and people from different fields.
Hyperloop may create thousands of job opportunities for people, decreasing the number of
unemployment rate in various nations and helping those nations economic growth.

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3.0 Analysis

Hyperloop might be one of the most ground-breaking invention if it prove itself possible to be
done and with the fact that one of the Hyperloop company which is Virgin Hyperloop One
managed to run multiple full-scale experiment since 2017 continue to strengthen the chance of
Hyperloop success.

However, there is always a second side of the coin. As I delve deeper into the discussion
regarding the Hyperloop and its probability to succeed, I have found some critics giving their
opinions on the flaws of Hyperloop and why it might be a failure. Thus, I will proceed to
explain some of the reasons described by critics which they claimed might cause Hyperloops
downfall.

The first reason is the vacuum concept. Sucking air out of tube to reduce the air
resistance when a capsule containing cargo or passengers might sound easy and logical to do
at first glance, but sadly it will not be as easy as it sounds like. Based on a video made by a
youtuber called Thunderf00t (link: https://youtu.be/Z48pSwiDLIM), he showed the audience
a clip which show how a perfect vacuum tube being crushed by outside atmosphere in mere
seconds. The tube was crushed like an empty tin can because of the sheer amount of pressure
being put on it from the outside. Musk claimed that the tube in which the pod will travel in,
will be 99.9% vacuum. Even if they succeed to produce a tube that could withstand the
pressure, the risk is too high. A leakage on the tube will cause a disaster and considering the
tube will be made airtight, there will be no way out for the passengers, which brought us to the
second problem, safety.

Safety is one of the first thing that will pass through our mind when mentioning about
travelling in a ride. For the Hyperloop, to maintain its passengers’ safety might be a pain to
deal with. Hyperloop tube will be made of steel and when steel is exposed to continuous heat
it will expand, bend, or buckle. Tube buckling is the last thing we want to hear when travelling
in a vacuum tube as even a simple dent will cause the tube to be crushed by the atmosphere.
Oil pipes also faces similar issue but it is overcame by using thermal expansion loop which
allow the pipes to contract and expand willingly.

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 Thermal expansion loop https://interestingengineering.com/biggest-challenges-stand-in-the-way-of-
hyperloop#:~:text=The%20Hyperloop%20is%20absurdly%20expensive,inside%20would%20perish%20almost%20instanta
neously.

However, we cannot expect the Hyperloop to use the same solution as the pod that will
travel in the tube is a solid matter, not liquid like oil. A solid matter that travel at high speed
cannot handle such dramatic twist. So, one of the solutions that Hyperloop have right now is
by placing Hyperloop tubes underground but even that will not settle the issue as tunnelling
will cost Hyperloop companies a fortune amount of money. The longest tunnel ever made for
transportation spans a mere 60 km through a mountain in Switzerland which costs 12.3 billion
US dollars. It would be impossible for the Hyperloop tubes to be buried underground for
hundred of kilometres after seeing the cost it will took.

Another safety issue that needed to be reckon with is terrorist attacks. A hundred, or
thousand kilometres long tube that carries passengers in it will be the perfect target for terrorists
as to guard the tube 24/7 will be hard and costs the company a huge sum of money.

The third reason is economy. A video was published by a channel on YouTube called
the American Rail Club (link: https://youtu.be/-XFMIqiDWAc). In the video, the host
addressed some of the problems that will cause the fall of the Hyperloop and one of them is
economy.

The economic issue that the host stated is regarding the capacity. As mentioned in
previous chapter, the capacity of a Hyperloop pod which is 28 passengers per pod, and then he
continues to calculate the amount of Hyperloop passengers per hour which is 1120. That
number is quite low to be compared with the existing mass transportation that we have now.
As a comparison, An Airbus A320NEO, the most popular narrow-bodied for this generation,
can carry about 206 per plane. At 12 take-offs per hour that is about 2470 passengers. The
difference grows larger as the host continue to compare Hyperloop with the Japanese N700

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Shinkansen that could carry 1323 passengers per train and during rush hour, the system can
move more 17 199 passengers per hour. This comparison is logical to be made as all three of
them falls under mass transit system category. And the purpose of a mass transit system is to
“safely carry as many passengers as possible from point A to point B while making revenue.”
Clearly, Hyperloop is out of the league as with that capacity, it will be tough for them to
compete with airlines and trains.

After researching about the criticism that the Hyperloop face, I have come up with an
opinion that Hyperloop might be possible to be realised. But by facing back to reality, it will
certainly be a very bumpy road, with a lot of challenges and obstacles to face. The amount of
research that it may took may cost years and years of study with the current technology that we
have. I do not think that we will meet with a fully functioning Hyperloop in just a couple of
years as promised by most of the Hyperloop companies. Yes, currently there is an existing full-
scaled prototype of the Hyperloop pod that could travel in a vacuum tube developed by the
VHO company. However, the top speed that the pod accumulated in the last test which dated
back in 2017 was just 387 km/h which is just 1/3 of the promised speed.

Hyperloop could give a lot of benefits to the society and its success might revolutionise
the way we currently live. Thus, I very much hope for its success in the future.

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4.0 Conclusion

This report has been discussing regarding the Hyperloop origin, its physical features
and mechanism and its possibility to be realised successfully in the future. Based on the
research that has been done, I would like to conclude that Hyperloop will be a great alternative
for transportation for everyone. Although there are still some issues that need to be resolved
such as safety and cost, people really should look forward to the benefits that the Hyperloop
could give.

Furthermore, people will definitely be very sceptical at first as they are facing a new
thing and this ‘thing’ will carry them inside a tube at near supersonic speed. Honestly, I also
would be very afraid to try it as I am concern about safety. However, progress could not be
made if people stay to be coward forever, we need to embrace new thing bravely. As for the
Hyperloop developers, they should continue their research and development on the Hyperloop
to make sure the final product will be the best version that they could possibly give. They
should also consider to take all those criticism into evaluation and consider them as a challenge
to step up their game. They also could gain more trust by people bay facing those criticism
heads-on.

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5.0 Sources

1. How long until Hyperloop is here? | CNN Travel

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companies/#:~:text=Headed%20up%20by%20CEO%20Jay,fully%20operational%20l
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4. https://www.gearbrain.com/what-is-elon-musk-hyperloop-
2505477906.html#:~:text=In%20a%20shift%20from%20Musk's,its%20capsules%20i
nto%20the%20air.&text=Repelling%20each%20other%2C%20the%20magnets,forwa
rd%20by%20an%20electric%20motor.
5. https://matmatch.com/blog/materials-for-the-
hyperloop/#:~:text=Currently%2C%20the%20preliminary%20design%20for,made%2
0of%20steel%20and%20concrete.
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transportation-2017-8#hyperloop-transportation-technologies-a-startup-building-off-
musks-concept-is-creating-a-5-mile-test-track-for-a-hyperloop-system-in-quay-valley-
california-construction-began-in-2016-and-the-company-is-aiming-for-the-train-to-
reach-760-mph-12
9. https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-05-18/the-10-fastest-trains-in-the-world
10. https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf
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Hyperloop--The-Story-So-Far.aspx
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14. https://interestingengineering.com/biggest-challenges-stand-in-the-way-of-
hyperloop#:~:text=The%20Hyperloop%20is%20absurdly%20expensive,inside%20w
ould%20perish%20almost%20instantaneously.
15. https://youtu.be/Z48pSwiDLIM
16. https://youtu.be/-XFMIqiDWAc

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