26. Agriculture and Bullet Train??

Well, I am certain that nobody associates Agriculture with the Bullet Train!

That is unless one utters the words, "Vertical Farming" or "Terrace farming" !

Travelling with a real estate agent yesterday  I got the thought that the elevated corridor could ideally hold a 'side-pan' of 1m on either side the of the 500 km stretch to provide at least 1 million Sq mts. of Terrace farming area to grow the fruits and vegetables - at least those required by IRCTC to cater to the various subsidised outlets it might run on or at the station-malls along the tracks of the bullet train!

Of course, if wheat for maida of the bread or basmati for the pulao of the dinner / lunch is also to be grown, then consulation from the ICAR or the Israelis maybe required!

25. Pre-selling Space!

It's nearly 10 months of inactivity here,but surely not spent in ennui!

The finance model revisited and the enthusiasm re-doubled to see this site become a success, so let's start off from where we left....

The finance model clearly shows that transporting 'goods' is much better for viability than transporting people, but is there a midway or hybrid even in an all passenger train ?

See a previous post - http://vidyutvegh.blogspot.in/2016/04/bullet-train-financials.html

Well, here's how-
Pre-sell, or Auction, two coaches (I have mistakenly called them 'rakes' in the past, but the smart will make the correction on their own) - say one as a 'resturant' and one as a 'Crossword' style books-cum-accessories store !

Of course the base rates for the auction would range between revenue receivable ranging from the total of the Annual ticket sale proceeds of a coach or  would match the annual freight rates for booking a wagon on the higher side!

24. Seat Sensor - Is the seat taken ?

Normally, one would have to work a lot on a reservation system and the memories of handymen, pasting rolls of paper on the side of compartments with guey grey-white substance dripping down the walls must be familiar to all travelling by trains in India.

Now this is not so in a local train, however, anyone who has travelled by the the Mumbai Local will tell you that reservation is a nightmare in it. Even today, there are many a persons for whom the "first class" stands for "free class" in the Mumbai locals.

So what should happen in the bullet train ?

Step One - Put a simple load sensor - Cost less than Rs. 200 -  inside each seat.

Tells you whether the seat is occupied or not.

Do away with all reservation except for special cases and a defined say 40% of seats. Total not exceeding 50%.

Fine passengers that travel with luggage on the seat  for a duration greater than 5 minutes after the embarking station.

Keep a press button option to indicate a seated child for minimum weight setting. This may also alert an accidental putting up a leg on the opposite seat where such opportunity exists.

Access control entry to each coach with number of persons corresponding to unoccupied seats, except at the starting station.

Display available seats, train wise - coach wise online to enable quick interchange of traffic.

23. The Joule-Thomson Refrigeration - Will this work?

I have always been fascinated by the thought of using the speed of air flowing past the bullet train and the idea of channeling it and then throttling it into the cabin longitudinally for use in air conditioning by a combination of the Joule-Thomson effect and the heat pipe analogy.


But, to communicate this idea a lot of contextual photographs and the state of the art (reference is from a 1999 paper available on the net from Hitachi , a link of which is placed here as acknowledgement - http://www.hitachi.com/rev/1999/revjun99/r3_107.pdf )

First, lets look at the shell structure of the car used for  the bullet train -

The double skin structure is already foam filled, the idea is to cut channels in the foam and let the air gush through along the length of the cabin. A good width of the cross section should be solvent-soaked foam midway for it may combine to accentuate the Joule Thomson (or Joule-Kelvin) effect on the longitudinal flow of air with the heat pipe principle on account of the solvent cross channeling through the porous foam which may act like a wick.

Longitudinally, I expect each car to have a small gradient sloping downwards from the engine to the rear, such that the air flowing past the first car is channeled into next car to coincide with the roof board section shown above which will have appropriately small holes to allow a throttling on entry to the air coming in.

Towards the rear of the car (we call it coach), sits the air conditioning system, which I expect to be a slimmer version than the one presented here - one autonomous unit integrated in each car.
The existing scheme taken from the link above is shown below -

What drives this thought is some statements I read in the linked article and the Wiki page on Joule Thomson effect -
1. From the linked paper -
"One of the most important factors to reduce noise outside the Shinkansen is the system for transferring current to the train. This system consists of a pantograph and an insulator (cover). The 700 series uses a single arm pantograph, which is effective for reducing noise. The shape and position of the insulator cover for the 700 series have been improved according to data collected from the operation of the Shinkansen 500 series. Concretely, one pantograph was installed in the Shinkansen 700 series, instead of ones extended over two cars in the Shinkansen 300 series. The (insulator) cover creates a smooth air flow on sides and above the train."

2.From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule%E2%80%93Thomson_effect

".....The physical mechanism associated with the Joule–Thomson effect is closely related to that of a shock wave,^[17] although a shock wave differs in that the change in bulk kinetic energy of the gas flow is not negligible....."

In the end, we hope to see a simulation similar to the one in the link below, except that on the duct in the top, there would be a strong streamline of outside air coming into the cabin!
http://www.n-sharyo.co.jp/business/tetsudo/technology/fluid_acsc_e.html

The moot question is - Will such an idea work?  If yes, then why not try it on the Gatimaan Express by modifying just one coach?

22. The Tracked Energy - Harvesting Energy from beneath the tracks.

Don't know if the Japanese have thought of this already,(besides I am tired of researching to see if this is already done in the Shinkansen while I struggle to meet my daily quota ;) ) but I am sure that there is a lot of vibrational energy beneath the tracks and sleepers allowing for a harvesting setup that independently provides some chance of recovery.

After trying to look up energy recovery through hydrodynamic damping, I thought piezo maybe the way to go and found this piezo-generator very useful for a back of the envelop calculation!

http://www.piezo.com/prodproto4EHkit.html

Extract :
Piezo Energy Harvesting Circuit
The self powered Piezo Energy Harvesting Circuit collects intermittent or continuous energy input from the piezo generator and efficiently stores their associated energy in an on-board capacitor bank. During the charging process, the capacitor voltage is continuously monitored. When it reaches 5.2V the module output is enabled to supply power to an external (user) load. At this point 55 mJ of energy are available. When generator energy input is high, the output voltage remains ON continuously. Capacitor voltage is clamped at 6.8V. If external power demand exceeds generation, the output voltage decreases. When the output voltage drops to 3.1V, power to the load is switched OFF and is not turned on again until the capacitor bank has been recharged to 5.2V. The circuit accepts input voltages from 0V to ±500V AC or DC and input currents to 400 mA.

So what will a possible system look like if  more energy is to be harvested - 

and how much energy is available ?

Here's a back of the envelop calculation - 

The piezo is about 3 inches (7.62 cms) , which allows us to lay 13123 pieces per km, which means about 9.8 (say 10) million pieces below the entire track length (presumed here to be 750 kms including the maintenance and shunting yards). Multiply this by 4 (because you will have at least 4 rails for 2 tracks one going up and the other down) you have 40 million pieces capable of generating-

40 million x 55 mJ = 2,200 million mJ or 2,200 Mega Joules

Now, Joules per second is Watts , so the potential is 2200 Megawatts!!! or am I dreaming again with my time integrals?

Ah! I know my wise friends will scream "cost", like the proverbial Faust, as they would have scrolled to the bottom of the above link and found the cost per piece for a quantity of 100 pcs to be $ 349, and adding another $50 for the system we round to say $ 400 then, we have $ 160 Million as investment for harvesting this energy!!

My experience with component level costing tells me that this price should fall to 1/2 or even 1/3 of the price indicated at 100 pcs when production is ramped to a million pieces and more importantly it is "Make in India" - I know one company that is capable of this in India, but are they watching, its anybody's guess.

In the end, this need not be under the track, it can be under the sleepers, it can be under the thrust pads of the bearings on some of the pillars and also, it can be thoroughly tested to full implementation before the second leg of the bullet train is operationalised anywhere in India or the world!

21. The Reservation Process - Will I be able to catch the 6:48 down?

This is the start of a plethora of suggestions around the world of IT, the most basic associated with a train being the information of whether you can get onto it or not!

Imagine a scenario where you are trying to catch an appointment or a connection with a just enough time to go, you surely want to know if you can drive down to nearest of the 11 stations and book yourself onto the train arriving there at 6:48 going down to Mumbai!

Mobile Apps and payment gateways come into play for a reservation on the go - which is obvious - but what other utilities can one pack into it ? This will depend on the the various ideas that come to us at the end of a year, maybe!!

Is there an app for booking tickets on the Mumbai Local? If not, what are the issues? For this will then guide the development of IRCTC's new avatar of reservation app for the bullet train. Most importantly, it will do away with the many windows at the precious real estate surrounding the platform and replace it with one, at most two - one at each end! 

Digital Payment will be the way forward!

20. Women Empowerment - A leaf out of Air India

It may be a stale idea but but its impact need not be underestimated!

The biggest fillip to women empowerment can come if Skill India program decides to collaborate with the Bullet train team to ensure that all on board crew in the bullet train is "woman-based".

This may include the housekeeping staff, the hosting staff , the drivers, the train marshals, (by the way, the Saurashtra region is known for some of the most feared women ganglords!) and practically every on-board position.

The required discipline, mental fortitude and sensitivity to guest needs cannot be match by the male mindset and this provide an overall gender parity in the employment ratios. 

19. The Smoking Coach - Inclusivity, the bullet train style

It is obvious that the bullet train will have a majority of smokers, so while having one or two cabins converted into smoking booths in the train in place of toilets maybe an option it would be much better if we had an entire SMOKING Coach (no pun intended here)!!

Obviously, the design will need to cater to beedi smoke and of course the "sin" tax will come into play for such coaches!

18. Pik Daan - The transformed 'air sickness' bag

We, in India, are proud of rich and varied cultural heritage - the indispensible part of which is chewing 'paan'!

Of course, with new hygiene standards and civic sense that may come with the Shinkansen from Japan, and our desire not give up our time tested habits of digestion, the air sickness bag becomes the new "Pik Daan"!

Naturally, fine for littering or spitting in the Bullet train is set at Rs. 5000/-

17. Soaps - How to measure Television Rating Points (TRPs) using the bullet train?

How can anyone do without television in the future?

Obviously the media industry would also want a sample of mixed population response which is typical of the group travelling by the train.

Presuming that the preponderance of the travelers would be by booking at the station or a web app just before travel, it would be interesting if some of the compartments had just one or a few hung displays with sponsored content.While these could be randomized on a monthly basis to analysis purposes, however if the the allotment of a particular channel like say Star or Sony is made to a certain compartment, and also announced in the web app along with all particulars (like available newspapers, choice of breakfast,etc) specific to the compartment while booking, then this is an immediate way to gather TRP or any form of public response.

Fluctuating public preference and sentiment can be gauged on a daily basis for a host of consumer applications, I think you get the drift!