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Student Engineers Build Hyperloop Test Pods That Set a New Speed Record (bbc.com)
Engineering students from the Technical University of Munich have won a hyperloop competition that aims to refine the technologies that could underpin the super-fast transport system. According to the BBC, "The team's pod hit 457km/h (290mph) on a 1.2km (0.75 mile) test track." This marks the third win in a row for the team. From the report: In the latest round of the competition, the Munich team, WARR Hyperloop, outpaced rival capsules, which could manage speeds of only 88mph (Delft University) and 55mph (EPF Loop, from Switzerland), to beat its own record speed, 323km/h, set in the second competition, in September 2017. In a change from earlier competitions, all the pods being tested this time had to be self-propelled. Previously, the pods could rely on a SpaceX-built "pusher" vehicle that helped them travel down the test tube.
Rather than pump the air out of the tube, treat the tube like a wind tunnel and blow air through the tube, or through injectors along the tube, at what ever speed you want the vehicle to go. For 100 - 500 Km stretches pumping tons of air out of the tube would take hours and maintaining the vacuum would take a lot of expensive energy. The inside of the tube could be dimpled or treated in some way to reduce the Reynolds Number. The positive pressure would keep the weather out and make leaks easy to find ... they'd whistle.
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maglev is artificially limited in acceleration and deceleration to protect the passengers. really it is a very big rail gun that could easily accelerate at speeds that are dangerous/deadly for the passengers. so getting to speed and back again is not a problem, getting to speed and down again with passengers intact is another matter.
A fast and efficient way for kids to get to the Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good.
I am curious about the full conditions of the track/tube that they do not tell us about. However, the average commercial jet cruises around 540 mph. So this is more than 1/2 of typical commercial jets. So, they are getting there. In addition, hyperloop should be cheaper to run than a jet. While tracks have to be put in, and pressure brought down, hyperloop should have much lower labor hours, lower drag (9000 meter vs 36000 meter ), and much lower energy costs.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
TFS mixes mph and km/h. Poor practice to report the slower ones in mph and the fastest in km/h; it makes the difference look larger. It's large enough that you don't need to exaggerate it.
Normal high speed trains (CRH) in China travel at 300 kph. The maglev train from Shanghai to Pudong International travels at ~430 kph. I have been on both types at these speed (they conveniently put the current speed in every car). The maglev does always travel this fast, ostensibly due to energy demand during peak usage (couple of times I was on it we only broke 300 kph). The shanghai maglev is about 30km long. Hyper loop needs to be much faster to impress me given the existing in-service trains.
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Can it accelerate to that speed, and stop again in 1.2km
No because competent engineers think about things like not killing their passengers.
Cowards...
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
That minimization of aerodynamic drag comes at a cost, namely keeping a leaky tube at a near vacuum while the system is in operation. What energy you might gain in reducing drag by a negligible amount (overland high speed passenger trains are already pretty good at this) is more than made up for by constantly having to pump air out of a tube that's hundreds of miles long.
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