Structural and Aerodynamic analysis of the Delft Hyperloop V pod with Femto

The team of Delft Hyperloop’s vision for 2021 is to win the European Hyperloop Week. This entails making a pod that is scalable and well-engineered. Despite of the team’s ambitious and talented people, we are not able to realize this dream without the assistance of experienced engineers. The smooth collaboration with the engineers of Femto was vital for designing some of the most intricate and challenging parts of this year’s pod.

An integral part of our pod is the new braking system, which allows for multiple braking events while remaining fail-safe in the event of a power outage. The activation system consists of multiple mechanical parts on which high forces will be exerted. With the Abaqus Finite Element Software we made several models which provided crucial data on stress and yield strength, an example of these models is shown in the image below. Due to Femto’s guidance we were able to validate and adjust our models, ensuring our confidence in the workings and safety of the physical system.

As for the aerodynamic shell design and simulation, Femto has immensely supported with perfecting the CFD model made in STAR-CCM+ and postprocessing the results. With Femto’s support the team was able to make decisions that led to speeding up the analysis process and consequently achieving a higher performance aeroshell design in a short period of time. A couple of images are shown below that represent the aerodynamic analysis done for our shell design in cooperation with Femto.

The Delft Hyperloop team is sincerely appreciative of Femto’s devoted service and much valued knowledge. Because of their expertise we are now confidently entering the testing phase and are assured to prevail at the European Hyperloop Week.