Optimal Design Operation Strategies of a Hyperloop Transportation System

In the last decades, transportation demand growth has played a major role in the increase of global CO2 footprint. At the same time, a number of countries have scheduled measurable and substantial cutback of CO2 emissions by 2050. As the transportation sector has a significant carbon footprint, this process has triggered the need to develop new transportation alternatives. These can be split in two main categories: low-speed and high-speed transportation systems. While there are existing sustainable alternatives for low-speed (or medium-speed) transportation systems (i.e., electric vehicles, electric trains), the only high-speed transportation system that exists at this moment is the aviation. In terms of CO2, the emissions produced by the aviation sector are significant and, even though there are alternatives to aircrafts powered by fossil fuels (i.e., solar-based synthetic fuels or electric), they are technologically in their infancy.

Hyperloop could potentially represent a freight or passenger alternative to fossil-fuel powered aviation especially for intra-continental travels. The hyperloop comprises a network of capsules traveling at sub-sonic speed in a low-pressure constrained environment (i.e., a tube) embedding a set of rails for propulsion, levitation/suspension and guidance. The main advantages of a hyperloop system are associated to its energy efficiency and consequent sustainability gains produced by the large reduction of the drag aerodynamic losses and the adoption of a fully electric drivetrain.

One of the major challenges for the hyperloop is the construction of a radically new infrastructure involving extensive phases comprising feasibility studies, land expropriations, permits and civil constructions. Regarding the capsule design, the main challenge is conceiving and developing a solution that would eventually reduce the price of the infrastructure and leverage low-maintenance procedures. A major role here is played by the drivetrain system (i.e., propulsion, levitation and battery energy storage system).

Within this context, the thesis focuses on the development of various optimization frameworks to assess the optimal performance of the Hyperloop capsules propulsion with respect to their kinematic/propulsion models and the operation in the depressurized environment. Then, the thesis discusses how to optimally scale-down the hyperloop system in order to design reduced-scale mock-ups to be used in a fast-prototyping process of this new transportation system. The last part of the thesis illustrates an experimental testing facility under construction at the EPFL campus.