HYPERLOOP
Hyperloop is competition put on by SpaceX for universities to design and build a pod for the Hyperloop transportation concept. At UCSB, Hyperloop is a fourth-year projects that student spend the entire year working on. Because I am a second-year student, I joined the team this last winter as an intern. I have been working closely with other interns and senior team members since I have joined the team.
The pod is a two-piece aluminum frame. One piece, called the cart, runs on drag racing wheels along the bottom of the track, while the other piece, called the payload, is levitated by four active magnetic levitation motors. The pod is laterally stabilized using polyurethane wheels that run horizontally along the web of an I-beam. The pod runs inside of a mile long tube that has been depressurized to a near vacuum. The pod is propelled by a pusher provided by SpaceX that will accelerate the pod to it's max speed inside the vacuum tube track. The pod will slow down using skids that will create frictional forces along the I-beam when actuated.
The main component I have worked on is a test platform for the pod. Another intern and I were given the responsibility of designing and building a segment of track to the same specifications as the track that the pod will run on in competition. The main goal of creating this test platform is to have a place to levitate the payload, run static tests, and make sure that all of the subsystems work together nicely.
The design of the test platform has included deflection calculations to make sure the platform would simulate the deflections of the actual track, calculation of worst-case dynamic scenarios to prevent the test platform from shifting during tests, and finding fasteners and other components that wouldn't affect the performance of the magnetic levitation engines.
I also joined the team to help with machining parts for the many subsystems that need to be built. The team was interested in my experience of working in the machine shop and felt that I would be a valuable addition to the team.
This project has been by far the most professional engineering experience I have had. I have learned a lot about team organization, communication, and what practical engineering is like. Working under the fourth-year engineers and with interns who are in their third-year has been a great learning experience for me as I have gotten a chance to see what kind of work I could be doing in the future.