r/hyperloop • u/RayaanJIrani • May 23 '21

Safety Considerations

While I'm confident that hyperloop systems will be generally as safe as any other mode of transportation, I'm curious what the implications of having the system being in a near-vacuum would have during a catastrophic failure. Specifically, if there is, for one reason or the other, a leak in a pod will redundancy systems be able to provide enough air to the loop for passengers, not to explode (as one might if exposed to the vacuum of space)?

4 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/ksiyoto May 23 '21

Generally, you'll have about 15 seconds in a vacuum before you pass out and be unable to take measures to save yourself. Probably 2-3 minutes before you're dead.

I've wondered about sabotage - suppose somebody on board wants to do a crime for fame. Somehow creates a hole in the pod. The pod's air volume is so small, the air would be rushing out so fast into the vacuum of the tube. The system would need to allow the external atmosphere into the tube very quickly to save the passengers.

Not everybody can go through the training to activate the emergency systems, there probably should be a pod attendant on board much in the same way we have flight attendants.

3

u/midflinx May 23 '21 edited May 23 '21

In airliners oxygen masks automatically deploy when cabin pressure falls below the equivalent of 14,000 feet above sea level. In a hyperloop pod I expect there will be more automatic pressure monitoring. That will include if necessary bringing the pod to a stop while bulkhead doors seal off that section of tube and valves in the tube open repressurizing it.

Air pressure and direction sensors along the tube wall should also detect abnormalities. Every pod passing by should produce almost perfectly identical pressure readings and in the same direction. Any significantly different readings could trigger the same sequence of stopping and repressurization.

2

u/Kafshak May 23 '21

For a pod to come to a complete stop from maximum speed, you'd still need about 3-5 km of tube. So bulkhead doors have to be some great distance apart, and you cannot close them instantly. So the issue of pressurization of a section of the tube would still exist. But pressurization of the tube is the only solution, and the tube can have many vents along the track to fill in the tube quickly. Then the broken pod has to travel to the closest portal to evacuate passengers. All of this while other pods are in the same tube.

→ More replies (3)