Hyperloop – prediction of social and physiological costs

Abstract

Background: Hyperloop is a new technological concept for a very fast magnetic levitation train that would travel through soft vacuum tubes and could achieve a speed of up to 1,200 km/h. As a new transportation system, it might bring some challenges related to human factors that should be tested and considered when designing and propagating Hyperloop.
 Aim: This paper used literature review to identify potential physiological and social challenges. Some of these challenges might be high speed, high acceleration /deceleration, large magnetic forces, safety concerns, air pressure, motion sickness and cost as potential human-related challenges.
 Methods: In this case, the method of literature review aimed to evaluate the potential physiological effect of these factors on the passengers. It investigated physiological consequences of very high speed, high acceleration/deceleration, and a high magnetic field, as well as human factors of the Maglev trains.
 Results: The literature identified high acceleration/deceleration, high speed and high magnetic field as potential risks or sources of discomfort for the passengers.
 Conclusion: To the knowledge of the authors, it is the first attempt to identify social and physiological challenges related to the Hyperloop trains concept. It is aimed to inform the development and policies to achieve the safest and most comfortable transportation form.

Numerical Study of Longitudinal Inter-Distance and Operational Characteristics for High-Speed Capsular Train Systems

“…Unlike conventional high-speed trains, capsular vehicles are individual vessels carrying passengers and freight with the expected maximum speed of near 1200 [km/h] in a nearvacuum tunnel and CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) works have been performed to validate feasibilities [14][15][16]. Capsular vehicles have a lot of advantages over traditional on-ground transportations like high speed, capacity, fuel efficiency, operational cost, environmentally friendly, etc., [17][18][19]. Among various subject areas for realization including communication [20,21], software systems and their designs [22], performance modeling and simulations [23], energy management [24]and eco-friendly effect [25], train control management and operation [26][27][28], this paper focuses on the inter-distance control aspect in operation since its inter-distance is directly related to the number of passengers, freight, and the overall efficacy of hyperloop system operation.…”

Key Points of the Management System for the Safety of Passengers Travelling with Low-Pressure Trains

“…This solution opens new aspects of ensuring passenger, goods and infrastructure safety not only due to the use of vacuum environment, but also in terms of functioning of this transport means in urban and non-urbanized environmentits impact on the environment and threats caused by the environment. Among the risk factors in the transport system, ultra-high speed, acceleration/deceleration, aerodynamics, magnetic field, human factor, the effect of noise and the absence of noise in tubes, fear of accident-related injuries (Almujibah et al, 2020;Oh et al, 2019;Opgenoord and Caplan, 2018;Niu et al, 2020;Santangelo, 2018). In addition, it is important to take into account the fact that the ultra-high speeds developed by hyperloop require automatic control, thus the level of complexity of human-machine interactions is high, making it necessary to develop new models of accidents and disasters in KNC traffic, as well as methods, tools and techniques for risk assessment and management (Gkoumas and Christou, 2020).…”

“…The main directions of hitherto studies on hyperloop technology have concentrated on technological aspects of propulsion, e.g. the electromagnetic levitation (Soni et al, 2019;Pradhan and Katyayan, 2018;Abdelrahman et al, 2018;Tudor and Paolone, 2019;Lafoz et al, 2020), the dynamics of the HL capsules and low-pressure tubes (Rajendran and Harper, 2020;Niu et al, 2020a;Nowacki et al, 2019;Belova and Vulf, 2016) the HL infrastructure and their resistance to natural catastrophes (Ahmadi et al, 2020;Alexander and Kashani, 2018;Taylor et al, 2016;Heaton, 2017) environmental aspects of the HL technology including energy consumption and utilization of renewable energy sources (Janić, 2020;Nowacki et al, 2019;Sayeed et al, 2018Sayeed et al, -2018Lafoz et al, 2020;Roswall et al, 2018;Rajendran and Harper, 2020) as well as costs and benefits associated with operational, economic, social, and environmental performance of the HL (Janić, 2020;Almujibah et al, 2020;van Goeverden et al, 2018;Rajendran and Harper, 2020). As the deployment of the HL technology gets more and more real, the design of hyperloop station and passenger safety management issues need systematical exploration, however existing studies on these subjects are scarce (Dudnikov, 2019;Taylor et al, 2016;Covell, 2017;Stryhunivska et al, 2020;van Goeverden et al, 2018;Rajendran and Harper, 2020).…”

Pseudo-Three-Dimensional Analytical Model of Linear Induction Motors for High-Speed Applications

“…A possible transportation application where LIMs are considered to be a potential candidate for the propulsion system is the Hyperloop [9]- [11]. As known, the Hyperloop concept envisages near-sonic speed transportation of people or freights, realized through capsules propelled by energy-efficient systems, into partially depressurized infrastructures, with the main goal of disrupting intracontinental flights by increasing the energy efficiency of longdistance journeys [12]. LIMs have recently regained attention from the scientific community for such types of applications mainly because of their construction simplicity, infrastructure passivity (i.e.…”