Documente Academic
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Behaviour of
Lift Ropes and
Components under
Seismic Excitation
Stefan Kaczmarczyk
Professor of Applied
Mechanics
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Outline
• Introduction
• Lifts Installations – traction lifts
• Seismic excitation
• Seismic damages in lift installation components
• Dynamic models and some results
• Safety codes / preventive measures
Introduction
Lift Engineering @Northampton
Research and Education programme:
• MSc/MPhil / PhD
• Lift Systems Engineering
• Systems Dynamics and Vibration
• Control
• Lift Traffic Analysis
• Safety Codes and Standards
Annual
lift and escalator conference
Open‐access
peer‐reviewed journal
Biannual Symposium
The Mechanics of Slender Structures
Lift installations
Lifts: non‐structural building components, the main types:
• Traction Drive
• Hydraulic Drive
• Rack & Pinion Drive
• Screw drive
• Pneaumatic drive
Traction lift Hoistway with guide
Machine/ drive unit rails
Fy
Fx
© 1999 Elevator
World Inc.
Suspension
compensating cables ropes
Fy Fx Fk
Counterweight
assembly
Buffers
in the pit
Traction lift: roping
Machine room
Travelling cables
Traction lift: safety gear
Rocking arm
overspeed governor
1852, Elisha Otis,
the safety elevator
Pivoted bob weight
overspeed governor
Cam type
safety gear
Governor
rope Captive roller
instantaneous
safety gear Governor
rope
v
v, v, w
w, w,
u
u, u,
s(t)
Tall buildings and structures (3)
• Tall buildings / towers sway at low frequencies.
• An adverse situation arises when the building structure is excited
near its natural fundamental frequency.
• The building sway is the main cause of large motions of suspension
/ compensating ropes.
• They occur due to long period ground motions (e.g. Mid Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake in 2004, Great East Japan Earthquake in
2011).
• At building sites far away from the epicentre conventional seismic
detection systems (switches) often do not register the low
acceleration/ low frequency (below 0.5 Hz) long period ground
waves.
Tall buildings and structures (5)
• The ground acceleration at a site far from the epicentre may not be sufficiently
high to trigger seismic detectors.
• However, the sway of tall buildings increases, and elevator ropes resonate with
the building motion.
• Lateral rope vibration may then cause entanglement in the elevator shaft or
damage to shaft equipment.
Compensating sheave
Whirling motion
x (m)
x (m) simulation model
0.06
expriment
0.04
0.02
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Frequency (Hz)
Simulation model
v 0 (t)
w0 (t)
Equations of motion developed
for each section of the suspension
x3
L3 and compensating system
Mcomp sv
qM3 sw
Simulation model: frequencies vs length
• The natural frequencies of the lift rope system vary with the length
of the ropes.
L2
M cwt
L3
Z0
L4
Mcar
L1 ground
Mcomp
qM1
Mcar
Z0
x1
z1
L1 v1 w1
ground
Mcomp
qM3
Simulation model: animation
L2
M cwt
L3
Z0
L4
Mcar
L1 ground
Mcomp
Codes and Standards / Technical
Reports
• ASME / ANSI A17.1 CSA B44 Safety Code for Elevators and
Escalators
SECTION 8.4: elevator safety requirements for seismic risk zone 2
or greater
• EN 81‐77 defines additional requirements to EN 81‐20/50 covering
lifts in seismic conditions
• ISO/TR 25741: 2008 provides a compilation of relevant safety
standards pertaining to protection of the user and vertical
transportation equipment during seismic activity.
• ASME TR A17.1‐8.4–2013 Guide for Elevator Seismic Design
Mitigating measures
• Optimization of the suspension rope and compensation rope,
governor rope tensions to shift the resonance frequency regions
• Lift well: protection of snag points
• Rope guards to prevent ropes jumping from the sheaves /pulleys
• Compensating rope sheave tie‐down
• Seismic switches / detection systems
Upon activation of a seismic switch, all elevators with traction machines, counterweights, and selective, collective, or
group automatic operation that are in motion shall proceed to the nearest available floor, open their doors, and shut
down (A17.1).
All registered car and landing calls shall be cancelled. New calls shall be ignored;
A lift in motion shall reduce the speed or stop and proceed to the next possible landing away from the counterweight
or balancing weight with maximum 0.3 m/s car speed. (EN81‐77).
• Counterweight displacement detectors
When the counterweight displacement switch is activated, the elevator, if in motion, shall initiate an emergency stop
and then proceed away from the counterweight at a speed of not more than 0.75 m/s (150 ft/min) to the nearest
available floor, open the doors, and shut down (A17.1).
• Position restrainers to the car and counterweight frames
• Reinforced guide rails
THANK YOU
stefan.kaczmarczyk@northampton.ac.uk
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