POTHOF COEN JOHANNES (NL)
| WO2010099748A1 | 2010-09-10 |
| DE3631377A1 | 1987-02-05 | |||
| CN101054087A | 2007-10-17 | |||
| CN101830228A | 2010-09-15 |
| Claims The novelty of this invention includes 2 claims: Our invention creates a passage from a passenger cabin through the low pressure tube to the station area at ambient pressure. Hence the cabin itself remains in the low pressure tube. Sliding gates in the tube wall are applied to realise the connection, which avoids pressurisation and depressurisation of the void around the entire cabin at stations. Our invention uses sliding gates on opposite sites of the tube wall. Sliding gates must be pushed with some force onto the cabin around the cabin door(s) to make the connection air tight. This concept promotes a balance of forces on the cabin by the sliding gates. |
Passenger embarkation/disembarkation system for stations in sub-atmospheric transport systems.
Field
Mechanical engineering, Transport. Background
Sub-atmospheric transport systems comprise of a low pressure tube, multiple cabins for passenger transport and stations where passengers can (dis)embark. Current conceptual designs, such as the Hyperloop by Spacex (http://www.spacex.com/hyperloopalpha ) use an air lock at stations to move a cabin from the low pressure tube to the station at ambient pressure.
Summary
Current station design concepts for sub-atmospheric transport systems are based on the concept that the passenger cabin must move from the low pressure tube to the station area at ambient pressure, typically using an airlock concept. Such a station design is technologically complicated, consuming energy for depressurisation in the air-lock and time-consuming. Our (dis)embarkation system includes opposite sliding gates that are pushed onto the cabin doors to create a passage through the low pressure tube; a top view of the system is shown in Figure 1.
This system for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers to/from a cabin has multiple benefits over the current state of the art with an airlock station concept:
1) No time is lost in the air lock to level the pressure in the airlock to ambient pressure
2) No time and energy for vacuum pumps is lost in the airlock to lower the pressure to the sub- atmospheric tube pressure.
3) Gates in the low pressure tube are not required anymore for normal operations. However gates may still be installed as a safety provision for emergency isolation of a station.
4) This station (dis)embarkation system is ideally suited for intermediate stations and needs very little space outside the main tube.
5) It is anticipated that such a system might even be applied as a retrofitting measure to existing underground stations in order to make underground transport systems much more energy- efficient.
Brief description of drawings
Figure 1: Top view of (dis)embarkation system Descriptic !mbodiments
The key element of this invention is the sliding gate to create the passage through the low pressure tube. It is anticipated that the sliding gate will contain elements from sliding gates at airports to (dis)embark passengers. The sliding gate must be extensible and must be capable to withstand the differential pressure between the low pressure at the outside and ambient pressure inside the sliding gate. Pipeline expansion joints do exactly the same in a pressurised pipe system. This technology could be incorporated in our sliding gate. As opposed to sliding gates at airports, the sliding gate in a sub-atmospheric transport system is closed at the front side which is moved towards the passenger cabin. It is anticipated that this isolation "door" opens into the sliding gate by hydraulic means, once the sliding gate is connected to the passenger cabin. The isolation door could be similar to a swing type check valve mechanism in a pipeline system, which would remain locked due to the differential pressure in case the required power for opening would fail.
Industrial Applicability
The industrial applicability is clear from the description above.