VicHyper is one of 30 finalist teams selected by SpaceX for the final phase of the Hyperloop competition held to build the world’s fastest train
The idea of traveling at supersonic speeds inside vacuum tubes – launched by Elon Musk in 2013 – has captured the imagination of the general public but, more importantly, of many engineers around the world.
SpaceX, in short, came up with the super-fast train, but it’s not making it alone. Open source projects have spawned startups like, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and Hyperloop, but Elon Musk wants to speed things up. So he launched a university-wide competition – the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod – in which 1,200 projects participated, chosen 124 of which only 30 passed the first selection. Among them VicHyper presented by RMIT of the University of Melbourne in Australia. At the beginning of January there will be the official verification of the prototypes made by the various teams.
What is Hyperloop?
Hyperloop, for those who still do not know, is a transport system for goods and people consisting of shuttles that hurtle at the supersonic speed of 1,223 kilometers per hour – almost the speed of sound – inside vacuum tubes. These speeds are achievable thanks to shuttles that practically float inside the tube via magnetic levitation (maglev) or air bearings similar to those used by airships, therefore, without producing the slightest friction.
May the best man win!
(Taken from Vimeo)
VicHyper, as mentioned, is the super fast train project designed and built by the Australian team of the University of Melbourne in Australia that will participate, along with 29 other prototypes in the final phase of the competition organized by SpaceX: a real “road test”, or it would be better to say “test in the pipe” in the test facility one mile long built by SpaceX near its headquarters in California. Zac McClelland, Project Leader at VicHyper, explains that for their project, they focused primarily on braking and acceleration technology that can adapt to both magnetic levitation and air-bearing vehicles. Their idea is based on a linear induction motor that can handle both acceleration and deceleration, which specifically also partially recharges the battery. Il secondo sistema frenante, da usare per le soste di emergenza, è invece gestito freni normali, o ancora meglio freni magnetici che sono spesso usati per trainare treni ad alta velocità e i vagoni delle montagne russe in salita. Altri team hanno scelto sistemi simili per rallentare le navette ma, secondo , Zac McClelland, i magneti permanenti sono più complicati da gestire, oltre ad avere la tendenza a smagnetizzarsi nel corso del tempo. L’uso di una batteria che alimenti gli elettromagneti è, secondo loro, una soluzione migliore.
Lavoro di gruppo
Fonte foto: Web
VicHyper è il secondo progetto su Hyperloop dopo quello presentato a Dubai qualche settimana (Premendo sull’immagine sarà possibile accedere alla fotogallery)
Ogni team, sebbene si tratti di una competizione, si sta focalizzando principalmente su alcune tecnologie chiave del futuro treno supersonico. Thus, some teams are studying – in more detail – which levitation system to use: some are leaning towards “maglev”, i.e. magnetic levitation, while others are aiming at air cushioning. Both technologies have their pros and cons, and the final experimentation of the prototypes – fixed from January 27th to 29th – serves just to decide which system is the best for the supersonic Hyperloop train.
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