Aerodynamic Design and Analysis of the Hyperloop

Abstract

The Hyperloop vehicle is a conceptual mode of transportation in which a pod travels at high speed through a low-pressure tunnel to minimize the aerodynamic drag. In the current paper, an aerodynamic design procedure of the Hyperloop vehicle for a design competition on a half-scale track is proposed and developed. The design process consists of a preliminary one-dimensional analysis of the pod through a reduced-flow model followed by a differential evolution multi-objective optimization coupled with a two-dimensional computational-fluid-dynamics solver. Finally, the optimal and initial designs are evaluated with three-dimensional simulations. Two main aerodynamic design objectives were evaluated to explore different conceptual ideas. One design focused on the ability to generate a certain amount of lift to mitigate the responsibility of the main levitation system, whereas the second design targeted the minimization of the aerodynamic drag to reduce the propulsion requirements.