A Study on the Lightweight Design of a Hypertube Bogie Frame

The hypertube is a next-generation transportation system capable of ultra-high-speed operation in a nearvacuum environment. Vehicle lightweight design is a crucial factor for improving energy efficiency and operational performance, particularly for the bogie frame, which accounts for a substantial portion of the total vehicle weight. Accordingly, this study proposed a conceptual design of a bogie frame in which conventional steel materials were replaced with composite materials and aluminum to achieve effective weight reduction. Structural integrity evaluation of the proposed design was performed using the commercial finite element analysis program Altair OptiStruct in accordance with the railway standard EN 13749. The analysis results confirmed that the Tsai–Wu failure index of the composite components remained below 1, while the Von Mises stress of the metallic components remained within the material yield strength limit, thereby verifying the structural integrity of the proposed hypertube bogie frame conceptual design.