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University Students Made a Working Model Hyperloop
derekmead writes: Elon Musk's Hyperloop gets people excited. Promise the ability to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and you're going to get people salivating. But for as much as we've heard about it, we've had scarcely little to see—until a team of students at the University of Illinois decided to build their very own miniature hyperloop.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
I am exceedingly skeptical this would be survivable by humans.
Suddenly I'm picturing Garfield plastered to the car window.
It just seems like the forces involved in accelerating and stopping would pretty much result in "puree". :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Pretty sure my bank has one of these. How is this news?
do any such thing. The pods don't even float on air, but use roller bearings.
Is one of the key differences that it is twenty-four times too small?
Could you imagine a hyperloop system being run by unions? Look at places like Washington DC where their mass transit *union run* has resulted in trains crashing into each other and trains going into a tunnel that's on fire only to lead to someone dying of smoke inhalation. This would be so much worse.
It must have been fun and I'm sure the students learned a thing or two, but this model uses physical roller bearings, instead of air pressure. So there is one problem with the model straight away. The second is they built it into an oval shape, which is another challenge the hyperloop faces: how to negotiate deceleration through a sharp corner, yet still maintain a high rate of speed to make this a viable mode of transit. I understand these design flaws are limitations imposed by the scale of the model, but really if you can't model something properly, then your experiments within this model will yield unusable data. Still, it was probably a fun project no less.
I was pretty surprised when I heard about Tesla or SpaceX's half-scale test track. It seems like a much better idea to start off at a smaller scale like this. If I was in charge, I would start off with whatever scale I could source the cheapest components for. Like, start at 1/32 scale, then go to 1/16, then 1/8, etc. That way economies of scale will help make the cost of the prototypes negligible.
The Second Decree: No more pollution. No more car exhaust or ocean dumpage! From now on, we'll travel in TUBES! Get the scientists working on the Tube Technology immediately!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
When I was little, I found a book in our bookshelf about the future. The book was from the early sixties. All with floating at sea nuclear plants, automatic farming, synthetic meet, maglev trains, and trains running through tubes. Propelled either by a propeller at the back or by magnets in vacuum. So Elon Musk just had a similar book in his youth and now tries to build the stuff. Some is great, but that tube thing sucks. It is expensive, it will require a lot of resources even compared to bullet trains.
...isn't this basically just a model train in a tube? It sounds like the only thing from the hyperloop they are actually using is the "electromagnetic motors." It's using roller bearings, and the tube is not depressurized. As far as I know, those are the two most important things about the hyperloop, which speak to the goal of increasing speed by reducing drag. The speed is 160mph, which is less than half the speed of the fastest trains currently operating. Using electromagnetic acceleration is pretty cool, but I remember riding on roller coasters that used this method of acceleration back in the 90s. I don't fault the students for doing a cool engineering project, but the headline chosen by the journalist is more than a little disingenuous.
When the damn thing turns. Maglev trains for people are actually slower then the ones for freight because the freight trains don't have to worry about grandma surviving the trip. If they were going straight the whole way that wouldn't be a problem, altho there's some time for slower acceleration and deceleration they the hyperloopies don't seem to add in. But to get from LA to San Fran you can't go straight, you have to go up and down hills, around mountains, over rivers, etc.
A big part of the reason for Hyperloops cost advantage on rail is that Musk insists that a Hyperloop track can be cheaper. He says it would be more analogous to a oil pipeline then a rail track, and have cheaper construction, more abrupt bends, etc., which leads to higher G-Forces; this is a an even bigger problem problem for actual implementation of the idea then it would be for alternatives.
Mark my words: every trial of this will be successful until they put people in it. By the time they've smoothed out the turns, upped construction standards to virtually eliminate accidents, and reduced speed to something grandma can survive it will probably cost more then rail. It's brand-new technology and first generation check is never cheaper then the stuff it's replacing. I suspect there will be significant energy savings, and possibly some speed advantage, due to the fact that a hyperloop operates in a vacuam and there's no wind resistance, but the price advantage ain't gonna last.
They didn't design a hyperloop. They designed something that tested some aspects that would get used by a hyperloop.
Do editors even work here?
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Whenever I hear the term "hyperloop," I think this thing is going to throw you into hyperspace, and you are going to come out in an empty vacuum, or on some planet without any oxygen.
Remarkable. That is a little longer than a flight from SF to LA, and their are dozens of flights a day. The miracle of travel is already here, brought to you by Boeing.
Floating at sea nuke plants? Fukushima came pretty damn close, eh? Not to mention all those nuke subs and carriers. Maglev trains are out there. Some of them even run through tubes (and/or chunnels). And synthetic meet? Kids these days just call it "social networking."
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
It's O scale or no scale.
The pneumatic tube transportation system was actually invented by a French-Romanian engineer named Henri Marie Coanda (https://www.google.com.ar/patents/US3787006) who also invented the first jet engine.
The "Hyperloop" concept - putting a capsule with seats in a tube and having it speed between cities - has been around for decades. I have seen concepts for it in old engineering books from the 1950s. Somehow, this becomes "new" and Musk gets his name on it.
I really don't get this cult of personality around Musk. He must have a god for a publicist.
I could probably be called an Elon Musk fanboy.. but wouldn't we rather have infrastructure that can handle a range of uses?
A system that can transport freight as well as people on solar/wind/nuclear/whatever as well as a pretty modest passenger load? Speaking as someone who lives in San Diego and would love to be able to get to medium-distance locations like North LA or the Bay Area without hours of driving in traffic this would absolutely benefit me; I would be a paying customer in a heartbeat. But I would gladly give up a bit more time on the trip if it meant giving our infrastructure a solid foundation for more then just a few quick trips.
I'm glad you people weren't around when the Wright bros were doing their thing. Or the Panama Canal. Or the Hoover Dam.
Eventually, this will be a viable project. Decades at the very earliest, before the first shovel full is dug. And then decades later before the first mile mile is complete. Gotta let the enviroweenies have their say.
But one of these will be built. Eventually.
In theory, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with the idea of a hyperloop. Pneumatic-powered transportation has been in the prototype stage for a very long time (a century or so, IIRC.)
But a line like this between SF and LA? The finances required for such construction are daunting enough with "simple" high-speed rail line. Constructing hundreds of miles of something far more finicky and complex? I suppose if one wanted to construct such a line across the great plains (not exactly a high-demand market) that could work. But a not-flat region of CA? His estimated construction costs are for raw trackage, and do not include the extensive system of bridges and tunnels that would be absolutely required, not to mention the expensive right-of-ways. And for what? Yes, there is a lot of air traffic between LA and SF, but not so much the construction of this boondoggle makes any sense whatsoever.
Outside of the Northeast Corridor, passenger rail in the US makes no sense whatsoever. The distance between viable markets, even with high-speed trains, is simply far too large to make the extensive capital costs worth it.
Cool. When I was at university, all I made was a bong out of a half-gallon milk bottle.
It was a pretty sweet bong, though.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I want SkyTran: http://www.skytran.us/
I have a way better 'Hyperloop' in my garage only i call it a coilgun
An hour to get from New York to San Francisco, an hour and a half to get through the TSA inspection and baggage handling. An enclosed tin can would be a perfect environment for a terrorist attack, and even if it wasn't the TSA would want to stick their noses in for the sake of empire building.
Also in Musk's published photos, they'd have a hard time fitting in the disabled access and public toilets which would be demanded by regulators and pressure groups.
Depending on cost and energy requirements, the Hyperloop may be better suited to goods transport. High acceleration and deceleration forces would not be a problem for goods shipments.
Godel_56 posting anon. due to mod points.
As we all know, humans are not capable of traveling at speeds faster than 30 mph. It was common knowledge in the 18th Century.
Obviously hyperloops can't work either.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Scale is off.
And guess what ? You should know better than to rely on time or speed to make such a guess. You should rely on force and acceleration. 1 G is perfectly survivable by human , and within 1 minutes you are already at 60 meter per seconds, and in 10 minutes 600 meter per seconds or about 2160 kmh. At that sped you do paris new york in 2 and half hour and the 400 miles between los angeles and san francisco in about 15 minutes. Naturally the speed we are talking about are not even 1/4 of that, and the acceleration much lower. But still it shows you that when it comes to beeing squished, you are way way underestimating how much it would take.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
The drive through at my old credit union had a similar scale hyperloop prototype in about 1985. We never thought of sending anything but deposit slips through it back then. . .
Doesn't pretty much every bank have a model hyperloop?
Now make it real size, economical and safe, and I'll start feeling impressed. Till then, cute toy, kids.
... surely these people know we've used pneumatic tubes before, no?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Robert A Heinlein germane.
What will happen during a hyperloope worker's strike or revolt?
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
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BT
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"I'm simply pointing out that it takes an AdBlocker to block your spamming"- by dave420 (699308) on Friday June 19, 2015 @10:31AM (#49945047)
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(You stalk/harass me instead!)
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APK
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