Publication
The thorough development of the hyperloop system does require the availability of reduced-scale models. They can be used for the fast prototyping of various components, as well as for studying critical phenomena that takes place in this peculiar transportation system without the need to develop complex and expensive full-scale setups. In this respect, in this paper, we present a process for the optimal assessment of the scaling factor; it is to be used for the development of a reduced-scale hyperloop model, starting from the knowledge of the technical characteristics of its full-scale counterpart. The objective of the proposed process is the minimisation of the difference between the normalized power profiles associated with the reduced-scale and full-scale models of a hyperloop capsule traveling along a pre-defined trajectory with a pre-determined speed profile. By considering the hyperloop full-scale model as a reference, we propose a set of equations that link the above-mentioned metric with the constraints dictated by the kinematics of the hyperloop capsule, the capsule's battery-energy storage and propulsion systems, the capsule's aerodynamics, and the operating environmental conditions. We then derive a closed-form expression for the assessment of the optimal scaling factor and eventually use it to study the scaled-down version of an application example of a realistic hyperloop system.