ME5509

Lifts 2
lift traffic
analysis

Rafay Hasan
February 2016

Lift sizing/selection

We need to determine:
Size of lifts
How many lifts
What speed

Quality of Service

Measured in terms of both

Transportation Capacity
and
Speed of Service

Required Capacity (RC)

The number of passengers expected during a five-minute interval

during the busiest time of the day
Table 1.1
RC = P5 x Pocc

(equation 1.1)

Where Pocc =number of occupants above ground floor

We will assume main entrance to building is at
ground floor level

Five Minute Peak Traffic P5

Apartment building
0.06
College residence
0.12
Department Store
0.20
Hospital
0.12
Hotel
0.10
Office(single tenant)
0.17
Office(multi-tenant)
0.12

Example an apartment tower building houses 500 residents, 450 of whom live
above the ground floor. Suggest a required capacity for the lifts
RC = 0.06 x 450 = 27

Transportation Capacity (TC)

the number of passengers the lift installation can
carry in a five-minute period
TC = 300L.P/RTT

300 seconds
(5 minutes)
The number
of lifts

(equation 1.2)

Average
number of
passengers
getting into lift
at ground floor

Round Trip Time

(in seconds)
Time taken for a lift to
complete one cycle

We want TC>RC
How do we calculate RTT?

RTT
This includes time the lift is travelling plus the time it is
stationary as doors open, passengers enter/exit and doors close
at each floor it stops at.
RTT = 2Hdf /V + (S+1){tc + to + tf df /V} + 2Ptp

(equation 1.4)

H is the number of floors traversed on the upward journey

df is the distance between floors (m)
V is the rated lift speed (m/s)
S is the probable number of floors visited other than ground floor
tc is the time taken for the doors to close at each floor (s)
to is the time taken for the doors to open at each floor (s)
tf is the time it takes the lift to travel between two adjacent floors (s)
P is the average number of passengers entering lift at ground floor
tp is the average time it takes a passenger to enter or leave a lift (s) usually taken
to equal 1.2 s

Probable number of floors traversed on the upward journey

N 1

i
H N
i 1 N

(equation 1.5)
Number of
passengers entering
at ground floor

Number of
floors above
ground floor

Probable number of floors lift stops at on the upward journey

P

1
S N 1 1
N

(equation 1.6)

Example 3 people enter a lift on the ground floor of a 6 storey building

3

i
H 5 4.2
i 1 5
4

1 3
S 51 1 2.44
5

Lift Speed, (V)

Standard rated lift speeds (m/s)

Table 1.2

0.40, 0.63, 1.0, 1.6, 2.5, 4.0, 6.0

Standard Lift Speeds (BS ISO 4190)

(It is recommended that time to travel from ground to highest floor is

between 20 and 30 seconds)

Flight time, tf
Rated lift speed
(m/s)

tf (s) [for df = 3.5m]

tf (s) [for df = 4.5m]

1.0
1.6
2.5
4.0
6.0

6.1
5.2
5.0
4.6
4.1

7.1
5.8
5.5
5.1
4.6

Table 1.3 typical values of flight time (CIBSE Guide D 2010)

Door opening and closing times, to and tc

Door Width
(mm)
800
1100

Side Opening doors

Opening (s)
3.0
4.0

Centre Closing doors

Closing (s)
2.5
3.0

Opening (s)
2.0
3.0

Closing (s)
2.0
2.5

Table 1.4 typical values of door opening/closing time (CIBSE Guide D 2010)

Number of passengers entering at ground floor, P

Rated Capacity (kg)

630

800

1000

1275

1600

No passengers (Europe) 5

11

13

17

21

P (80%)

8.5

10.7

13.6

17.1

3.8

Table 1.5 Standard lift capacities

example
Determine the Required Capacity and Transport Capacity of a proposed
lift installation based on the following:

Building Type Multi-tenant office

Number of occupants above ground floor (Pocc) = 800
Floor to floor height (df) = 3.5m
Number of floors served above ground floor (N) = 8
Number of Lifts (L) = 3
Lift rated capacity 1000kg
Lift rated speed (V) = 1.6m/s
Lift Doors 800mm side opening

solution
From table 1.1, P5 = 0.12.

Then Required Capacity (RC) = 0.12 x 800 = 96 passengers in 5 minutes

From table 1.5: P=10.7 passengers
N 1

i
H N

i 1

10.7

i
8
i 1 8
7

7.7

P
10.7

1
1

S N 1 1
81 1
6.1
N
8

solution
From table 1.4, to = 2 s and tc = 2 s
From table 1.3, tf = 5.2 s
Take tp = 1.2 s

Then RTT
= 2Hdf /V + (S+1){tc + to + tf df /V} + 2Ptp
= 2x7.7x3.5/1.6 +(6.1+1){2+2+5.2-3.5/1.6}+2x10.7x1.2 = 109 s
Then TC = 300L.P/RTT= 300 x 3 x 10.7/109 = 88 passengers in 5 min.

Speed of service
BS 5655:6, 2011 uses the concept of interval time as a measure of
lift performance.

This is defined as:

the average time between lift starts from the ground (main) floor
Quality of service

Interval Time (s)

Unsatisfactory

>50

Below average

40 to 50

Good

30 to 40

Very good

20 to 30

Excellent

<20

Table 1.6 Quality of service based on Interval Time for offices

INTERVAL = RTT/L

(equation 1.7)

example

In the previous example, what was the Interval Time and what level of service
does this represent?

Interval = RTT/L = 109/3 = 36 s

For an office building this would be considered Good

but this is a residential building!