Some basic numbers for Virgin Hyperloop

[py9rmas]

I was looking at the Virgin Hyperloop web-site to try and get definitive specifications and numbers for what they are really proposing.

Would I could get is:
Source Virgin Hyperloop website gives some figures:
670mph = 1072km/s = 300m/s
Vaccum @ 100Pa.
28 passengers per pod.
Will cost 60-70% the cost of high speed rail (not at all clear what that means).
Smooth: "You will be able to sip coffee all the time without spilling a drop".
Silent - because it is electric (for whom?)
Banked rail to allow high speed turning radius of 1.36km at 100m/s. Normal acceleration and deceleration of 0.20 Gs will feel similar to a train
Able to climb 10% gradient at 100m/s

 

[py9rmas]

The website shows a pod 7 rows of seats, so a row must have at least 5 seats. that needs 3 meters of width in the pod just for seating, not counting space to get in and out.
So can we assume the internal diameter of a pod is at least 3.5 meters? So at least 4m on the outside?

 

[py9rmas]

Does anyone know the mass of one of these pods?
Also, the web site suggests the motor is in the pod. So I would assume the energy store is as well. What is a reasonable assumption for the maximum power we would be able fit reasonably into one of them? 1MW?

 

[py9rmas]

So, I'll continue on my own then.

The Virgin Hyperloop says pods will transport 28 people. A Telsa Model X can transport 7 people and is a state-of-the-art electric car. So let's scale that by a factor 4.

A Tesla Model X has about 455kW, and a 2.3T mass.
So if we take four of them we get 1.8MW and 9.2T, to which we add 28x100kg passengers and we have 12T total mass.

As the max acceleration is 2m/s/s for passenger comfort, we accelerate like that for the first 1.4km, reaching 75m/s velocity.
At that point we become power limited, and the acceleration slows.
We will reach v_max = 300m/s after about 5minutes and 18s, but the pod has to travel 60.5km to reach that.
It's an impressive average speed, but look at the distance already needed!

Let's look at NYC to Washington DC on an as the crow flies route, which is 330km.
I make the assumption that acceleration is power limited, but braking isn't.
At v_max = 300m/s, the time taken is 21.5 minutes.
At v_max = 100m/s, the time taken is 55.8 minutes.