Infrastructure for Hyperloop

Scalable technologies for the full scale vision

Infrastructure is what differentiates Hyperloop from other subsets of the Transport circuit. With all the focus on pod research and development, it is time we simultaneously focus and start to #ThinkOutOfThePod. Avishkar has been spearheading Hyperloop infrastructure research in India, extensively performing R&D to standardize the tube and track development.

The Goal

World's largest student run Hyperloop Testing Facility

to boost open source Hyperloop Development

Length

400m

Diameter

Ready by

Febraury 2024

Location

IIT Madras

The team is currently heading a project of building a 400m long tube at the Discovery Campus of IIT Madras, Thaiyur in collaboration with the Indian Railways and L&T Construction. The upcoming facility and a Centre For Hyperloop Excellence is being developed as a consequence of Avishkar’s persistent R&D for Hyperloop - particularly to optimise the tube’s thickness, and thereby, the cost. Upon its commissioning this year, the facility will be the world's largest student-run Hyperloop testing facility, making India a global centre of Hyperloop research.

We are excited to announce that this tube shall play a key role in providing a unique platform for the competitive teams to showcase their pods in the upcoming Global Hyperloop Competition(GHC) that shall be hosted by IIT Madras.

Tube Prototype

Our first step for a giant leap

As a first step to materializing the Indian Hyperloop dream, we have tested our design for the Hyperloop vacuum tube in the form of a 3.6m long, 1m wide prototype located at the Centre For Innovation, IIT Madras. As of recent, the prototype has been successfully tested for its vacuum capabilities, hitting an absolute pressure as low as 133 Pa. The successful testing of this prototype has given us the green signal for our 500m long vacuum tube coming up next summer.

Tube Parameters

Length

3.6m

Diameter

Min Pressure

100Pa

Leakage rate

1300Pa/hr

Destructive Testing

To validate our designs

In any engineering problem it's crucial for designer to know when their product is going to fail. For a massive undertaking like Hyperloop it is even more paramount. We developed a methodogy which can realiably predict point of failure for external pressure tube under buckling. We tested it using prototype designed to fail at a given pressure. This is achieved by combination of emperical relation and iterative non-linear FEA simulations. During our test, our part failed at our predicted pressure having a 5% of engineering tolerances. This approach has helped us estimate a accurate Factor of Safety for every design we produce and thus gives us confidence to build India's biggest Hyperloop facility.

The Custom Track

Supporting the movement of the Pod

Avishkar brings it all when it comes to tube research, pod development, scalability. The same goes with the track. This year, through various simulations, we designed our own custom track that supports biaxial levitation and also propulsion of our pod. The F-Section of our track made of mild steel supports vertical levitation and the vertical block of the F-section supports the lateral levitation. The grooves on the horizontal part of the F-Section mitigate with the Electromagnets(EMS) of the pod for it's air gap provisions. The T-Section of the track made of Aluminium supports the propulsion powered by our Double Sided Linear Induction Motor(DSLIM).