Experimental Results and Analysis of Flow in a Pneumatic Tube System During a Vehicle Transit

Abstract

A pneumatic tube system suitable for transportation purposes is simulated in an experimental facility. The vehicle position, velocity and corresponding system pressures were obtained and are presented for representative test runs. An analysis for prediction of these quantities during the transit of a vehicle through a tube under conditions of fixed inlet pressure and discharge volume flow rate is also presented. This analysis is applied to the experimental operating conditions and is shown to predict the experimental results closely and to be applicable to the prediction of the performance of prototype pneumatic tube systems over a significant range of interest.