Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Vertical Transportation
Vertical transportation – a important equipment for multistory building
 Passenger Elevators
 Freight or Cargo Elevators
 Escalators
Passenger Elevators – General purpose traction elevator
Ideal performance of an elevator installation provides:
 Minimum waiting time for a car at any floor level
 Comfortable acceleration
 Rapid transportation Design and installation
 Smooth and rapid breaking requirements
 Accurate automatic leveling at landings
 Rapid loading and unloading at all stops
 Quick and quite power operation of doors with comfortable lighting
 Good floor and travel direction indication both in cars and at landings
Operational
 Easily operated car and landing call buttons
requirements
 Smooth, quite and safe operation of all mechanical equipment
 Reliable emergency and security equipment
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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Elevator Selection
The selection of elevators consider several factors such as:
 Adequate elevator service for the intended building usage
 The economics of elevator selection
 The architectural integration of spaces assigned to elevators including
lobbies, shafts and machine rooms
The selection of an optimum system for large buildings is most practical and accurate
with the aid of a computer or simulator.

The major criteria usually used in determining elevator service quality are:
 Interval and average waiting time
 Handling capacity
 Travel time
The guidelines that are followed in the computation of elevator requirements result in
a determination of these three criteria and their comparison with predetermined target
values.

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 Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment
Average lobby time or average lobby waiting time
Average time spent by a passenger between arriving in the lobby and leaving in a car
Handling Capacity
The maximum number of passengers that can be handled in a given period of time
e.g. 5-minute handling capacity
Interval (I) or lobby dispatch time
Average time between departure of cars from the lobby
Registration time
Waiting time at an upper floor after registering a call
Round-trip time (RT)
Average time required for a car to make a round trip starting from the lower terminal
and returning to it
Travel time or average trip time (AVTRP)
Average time spent by passengers from the moment they arrive in the lobby to the
moment they leave the car at an upper floor
Zone
Group of floors in a building that is considered as a unit with respect to elevator
service
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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Interval (I) or Lobby Dispatch Time and Average Lobby Waiting Time
Since the Interval (I) and the passenger arrival in the lobby are random, the average
waiting time in the lobby should be half (50%) of the interval (I). However, in practice
it is actually longer than this and therefore,
Average Lobby Waiting Time = 0.6 × Interval

Handling Capacity (HC)

Handling Capacity of an elevator system
depends on two factors:
1) Car Size (Passenger load)
2) Interval (Frequency of loading)
As a convenience measure of capacity, the
handling capacity of a system for 5
minutes is taken as standard. This is
because a 5-minute rush period is used as
a measure of a system's ability to handle
traffic. Thus,
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 Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Handling Capacity (HC) = passengers/car × cars/sec × 5 min × 60 sec/min

Passengers / Car 300 p
Handling Capacity = × 300 or HC =
Interval I
where, p is car loading (number of passengers/car) and
I is interval (frequency of loading)
Minimum Percent Handling Capacities (PHC)
The minimum percentage of the building population that the elevator system can
handle in 5-minutes.
For example, a good system for a city center
office building will handle maximum 13%
of the building population.

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 Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

In planning an elevator system, the

building’s population must be estimated.
Based on rental cost, area, and building type,
a fair estimate can be made (Table 31.7)

Travel Time or Average Trip Time (AVTRP)

Average Trip Time or Time to Destination
= Lobby Waiting Time + Travel Time to
the median floor stop
For example, in a commercial building,
Trip of less than 1 minute : highly desirable
75-second trip : acceptable
90-second trip : annoying
120-second trip : limit of tolerance
Figure 31.14 and 31.15 shows average trip
time for various car speeds and capacities.
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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Round Trip Time (RT)

The time from door opening at the lower terminal to door opening at the same terminal
at the end of a round trip. RT time is basically composed of the sum of four factors:
1) Time to accelerate and decelerate
2) Time to open and close doors at all stops
3) Time to load and unload
Figure 31.16 and 31.17 shows
4) Running time plots of round trip time for
In detail, RT consists of the time expended in: various car speeds and capacities
1) Loading at the lobby with different floor height.
2) Door closing at the lobby
3) Accelerating from the terminal and from each stop
4) Decelerating at each stop
5) Passenger transfer at each stop
6) Door operations at each stop
7) Running time at rated speed between stops
8) Return express run from the last stop
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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

System Relations
The symbols used in all elevator system selecting calculations:

Now,
300 p
Handling Capacity, HC =
I
RT
Interval, I = Therefore, for a single car, RT = I
N
300 p
5 - minute handling capacity of a single car, h =
RT
HC
Therefore, Handling Capacity of N cars, HC = N × h or N=
h
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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Car Speed
 The selection of car speed to be used is a matter of trial and error
 The final selection is required to have an RT that in turn gives an acceptable interval
 The recommended car size and speed for certain facility types and rise are provided
in Table 31.9

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Level – 3/Term – I ME 363 (N) Building Services-II : Mechanical Equipment

Selection of Elevator System

Example -1
Office building, downtown, diversified use, 14 tenable floors above the lobby, each
12,000 sft net. Floor-to-floor height – 12 ft. determine a workable elevator system.
Solution
From Table 31.6, recommended average HC = 13%
From Table 31.4, the maximum recommended interval = 25 seconds
From Table 31.7, average population density = 120 sft per person
14 floors × 12,000 sft
Therefore, Building Population = = 1400 persons
120 sft/person
And suggested minimum handling capacity : PHC = 13%
HC = 0.13 × 1400 = 182 persons
rise = 14 floors × 12 ft = 168 ft
Now, use Table 31.9 to select car size and speed of the car apply the trial
and error method to meet the recomended PHC and Interval
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