Levitation Methods for Use in the Hyperloop High-Speed Transportation System

Abstract

The Hyperloop system offers the promise of transportation over distances of 1000 km or more, at speeds approaching the speed of sound, without the complexity and cost of high-speed trains or commercial aviation. Two crucial technological issues must be addressed before a practical system can become operational: air resistance, and contact/levitation friction must both be minimized in order to minimize power requirements and system size. The present work addresses the second issue by estimating the power requirements for each of the three major modes of Hyperloop operation: rolling wheels, sliding air bearings, and levitating magnetic suspension systems. The salient features of each approach are examined using simple theories and a comparison is made of power consumption necessary in each case.

Semi-active control of a nonlinear quarter-car model of hyperloop capsule vehicle with Skyhook and Mixed Skyhook-Acceleration Driven Damper controller

“…It depends on the vertical and horizontal position and forwarding velocity of the bogie. So that the capsule's nonlinear dynamics of a quarter-car model is defined as a combination of linear and nonlinear parts, as shown in equation (5).…”

“…1 To eliminate this problem many researchers have been doing research to invent a new suspension system. One of the potential options, air bearing suspension, 5 was tested but it is found to be not good for onboard passengers' comfort. 1 Enormous researchers have proposed magnetic levitation and concluded that the system is most appropriate for levitation and propulsion of advanced ground transportation systems such as high-speed train and hyperloop capsule, though the cost of construction is prohibitive.…”

“…1 Enormous researchers have proposed magnetic levitation and concluded that the system is most appropriate for levitation and propulsion of advanced ground transportation systems such as high-speed train and hyperloop capsule, though the cost of construction is prohibitive. [5][6][7] There are two main competing technologies of a magnetic levitation suspension system. Electromagnetic Suspension (EMS) system is Germany's technology, which works under the principle of magnetic attraction.…”

Mitigating the Piston Effect in High-Speed Hyperloop Transportation: A Study on the Use of Aerofoils

“…The system consists of a low-pressure tube with capsules traveling at both low and high speeds throughout the length of the tube using levitation [8]. The time spent traveling during short journeys at cruise speed is much lower compared to the overall end-to-end travel time in air transportation due to the inefficiencies in air travel (runway taxiing, climb, descent, etc.)…”

Reducing the Power Consumption of the Electrodynamic Suspension Levitation System by Changing the Span of the Horizontal Magnet in the Halbach Array

“…However, there is also an electrodynamic type of levitation, where a vehicle equipped with a magnetic field source repels from the electrically conductive track [1,4,5]. Electrodynamic suspension (EDS) systems may be based on permanent magnets arranged in a Halbach array and are perfect for application in high-speed magnetically levitating trains (maglevs [6,7] and hyperloops [8,9]) because of their construction simplicity and linearly increasing lift-to-drag ratio with velocity. However, at relatively low speeds (below 300 km/h) electrodynamic systems such as Inductrack generate high drag forces when compared with a classic nonmagnetic high-speed railway [10][11][12].…”