A Rapid Solver for the Prediction of Flow-Field of High-Speed Vehicle Moving in a Tube

Abstract

High-speed vehicles traveling in a tube with pressures similar to those experienced by aircraft at their maximum altitude are presented. Although the concept resembles Hyperloop, the pressure level investigated here is much higher and safer than that suggested by Hyperloop, and, therefore, the system design is markedly different. Calculating a vehicle’s aerodynamic performance in the initial design stages requires low-budget computational tools to enable iterative design processes. This study presents an algorithm for rapid flow-field prediction based on a one-dimensional Reimann solution, including viscosity and heat transfer effects. The flow-field is divided into near- and far-fields, where the near-field represents the solution directly around the vehicle. The far-field demonstrates the impact of the vehicle’s motion on the vehicle’s flow-field upstream and downstream. Two-dimensional URANS models are compared to the current numerical scheme. The developed algorithm analyzes the flow-field and the propagation of pressure waves along the tube to simulate the vehicle’s movement. The one-dimensional model shows the robustness and predictability of the near and far flow-fields. The results from the developed scheme provide good agreement, with less than a few percent deviations, compared to CFD simulations but with significantly lower computational resources.

Effect of Maglev Suspension on the Aerodynamics of Multiple Vehicles Moving in a Low-Pressure Tube

“…Maglev transportation can primarily be classified into three categories: electromagnetic suspension, electrodynamic suspension, and high-temperature superconducting [1]. Since pressure levels are quite low in the tube, generated drag acting on moving vehicles is also low, and as a result, the system will consume less power when compared with other systems operating in open space where the high pressure (i.e., high-density) has a significant impact on drag [2]- [4]. Understanding the aerodynamics of the ETT system, known as Hyperloop [5], is key to its design.…”

“…At high speeds in confined space, flow is associated with unfavorable flow phenomena, such as shock waves, piston effect, and pressure wave propagation [2], [6], [7]. Recently, many research papers have IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2772/1/012013 2 studied various aerodynamic design parameters affecting vehicle performance (including operating pressure, temperature, vehicle speed, tube/vehicle blockage ratio, and head/tail shape) [2]- [4], [6], [8]- [21]. The majority of the work considered axisymmetric models (where no suspension gap variation is taken into account).…”

“…Figure4 Mach number and static pressure contours for 𝑋 𝑣 = 2𝐿 𝑣 , 𝑀 = 0.7, 𝛽 = 0.36. For the distance of 𝑋 𝑣 = 2𝐿 𝑣 , the Mach number and pressure contours are depicted in Figure4.…”