Los Angeles-based HyperloopTT has announced a financial investment from Thornton Tomasetti, a leading global scientific and engineering consulting firm that provides specialised safety, security, and risk management services. HyperloopTT and Thornton Tomasetti began work on a ‘broad operational safety and security assessment’ in 2020, with a focus on evaluating the performance of ‘key system elements under extreme loading conditions arising from accidents and intentional threats’.

With capsules travelling up to 760mph — faster than the cruising speed of a Boeing 777 — the high-speed nature of the Hyperloop system and its operation within a low-pressure environment presents unique technical considerations.

Thornton Tomasetti performed detailed simulations of various conditions, including thermodynamics, gas dispersion, capsule and battery safety, blast and impact effects on supporting infrastructure, and material selection and characterisation.

The company also demonstrated how risk mitigation measures can be implemented across the system to enhance safety, with the results informing ‘the next design iteration of the key system elements and their deployment’.

Andrés De León, HyperloopTT’s CEO, said: “Passenger safety is the most important part of any transportation system. We have placed this principle at the core of our design by using best practices from rail, aviation and other analogous industries and employing the expertise of leading professionals in these fields. The completion of this latest safety analysis, done in partnership with the experts at Thornton Tomasetti, allows us to move on to the next stages for our passenger and freight systems.”

Pawel Woelke, Thornton Tomasetti’s principal, who is leading the project, said: “Because Hyperloop is a completely new system, the technical challenges require innovative thinking. Working closely with the HyperloopTT team, we systematically assessed the risks and developed multiple first-of-its-kind, practical solutions aimed at risk reduction.”