Drag Analysis of Aerodynamic Braking System for the Hyperloop Pod

Abstract

This research presents the results of the aerodynamic brake plates mounted on the hyperloop pod, on a fluid flow field, and overall braking force under the same velocity with different angle deployment of the brake plates. Aerodynamic brake plates are designed to generate the braking force by increasing the aerodynamic drag when It was deployed against the fluid flow, in this research three plates are used one is a horizontal plate mounted on the roof of the pod and the remaining two are vertical plates which are mounted on the left and right side of the hyperloop pod. In this research to develop the case studies different combinations of angle deployment of the brake plates are used, the sixteen cases of hyperloop pods with different angle deployment of brake plates are designed by using CATIA VR-6R. the flow simulation was made by Ansys CFX software for sixteen cases of the pods with different angle deployment of the brake plates under the same velocity. This research founds that the aerodynamic drag force is a function of angle deployment of the brake plates under the same velocity, drag force can increase or decrease by changing the angles of the brake plates. the result shows that 2.4 times of drag force increased for a fully deployed angle of attack of the brake plates when compared with the the same pod with no brake plates shows us that employing the brake plate increases the drag force This outcome will provide a major contribution to the development of the aerodynamic braking system of the hyperloop pod. KEYWORDS: hyperloop pod, aerodynamic drag, 𝑘 − 𝜔 model, aerodynamic brake