A Rapid Solver for the Prediction of Flow-Field of High-Speed Vehicle Moving in a Tube

Mohammed Abdulla () and Khalid A. Juhany
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Mohammed Abdulla: Aerospace Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Khalid A. Juhany: Aerospace Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-15

Abstract: High-speed vehicles traveling in a tube with pressures similar to those experienced by aircraft at their maximum altitude are presented. Although the concept resembles Hyperloop, the pressure level investigated here is much higher and safer than that suggested by Hyperloop, and, therefore, the system design is markedly different. Calculating a vehicle’s aerodynamic performance in the initial design stages requires low-budget computational tools to enable iterative design processes. This study presents an algorithm for rapid flow-field prediction based on a one-dimensional Reimann solution, including viscosity and heat transfer effects. The flow-field is divided into near- and far-fields, where the near-field represents the solution directly around the vehicle. The far-field demonstrates the impact of the vehicle’s motion on the vehicle’s flow-field upstream and downstream. Two-dimensional URANS models are compared to the current numerical scheme. The developed algorithm analyzes the flow-field and the propagation of pressure waves along the tube to simulate the vehicle’s movement. The one-dimensional model shows the robustness and predictability of the near and far flow-fields. The results from the developed scheme provide good agreement, with less than a few percent deviations, compared to CFD simulations but with significantly lower computational resources.

Keywords: Hyperloop; numerical scheme; Method of Characteristics; 1-D viscous compressible model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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