DESIGN OF LIFT

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For design of lifts factors to be considered
are –
1. Population or no. of people who require
lift service.
2. Handling capacity or maximum flow
rate required by the people.
3. Interval or quality of service required.

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1. Population : Population is calculated
based on occupancy type of the building

Type Occupancy
area/per person
Residential 12.5
Educational 4
Institutional 15

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Assembly hall with
(a)Dance floor 0.6
(b)Dinning 1.5
Business 10
Mercantile
(a)With basement 3
(b)With shops on 6
uppers

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 Industrial 10
Storage 30
Hazardous 10

Above area per person is gross area

of the floor in square meters. In case of
office building 75% of the inherent
occupancy is expected to arrive in time
(period of ½ hr. before opening time
which peak traffic period also).
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 Floating population may also be
there to counterfeit the effect of late
coming persons. 100% population as
calculated from floor occupancy basis to
be adopted as total population to be
served, during peak hours.

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2. Quantity of Service :
The quantity of service is a measure of
the passenger handling capacity of a
vertical transport system. It is
measured in terms of the total number
of passengers handled during each five
minutes peak period of the day.

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3. Quality of Service :
The quality of service on the other hand
is generally measured by the passenger
waiting time of the various floors.
Quality of service or Acceptable interval:

20 to 25 seconds Excellent
30 to 35 seconds Good
35 to 40 seconds Fair
40 to 45 seconds Poor
Over 45 seconds Unsatisfactory
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Handling Capacity & RTT :
The handling capacity is calculated by the
formula:
H = (300 x Q x 100)/T x P
Where
H = Handling capacity as the percentage of
the peak population handled during 5
min.
Q = Average number of passengers carried in
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a car
T = waiting interval, and
P = Total population to be handled during
peak morning period. (It is related to
the area by a particular bank of lifts)
The value of ‘Q’ depends on the dimensions
of the car. It may be noted that the capacity
loaded always to its maximum capacity
during each trip and, therefore, for calculate
the value of ‘Q’ is taken as 80% of the
maximum carry capacity of the car.
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The waiting interval is calculated by the
formula :
T = RTT/N
Where,
T = waiting interval
N = number of lifts, and

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RTT = round trip time, that is, the
average time required by each lift in
taking one full load of passengers from
ground floor, discharging them in
various upper floors and coming back to
ground floor for taking fresh passengers
for the next trip.

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RTT is the sum of the time required in the
following process :
a) Entry of the passengers on the ground
floor,
b) Exit of the passengers on each floor of
discharge,
c) Door closing time before each floor of
discharge,
d) Door opening time on each discharging
operation, 13
e) Acceleration periods,
f) Stopping and leveling periods,
g) Period of full rated speeds between stops
going up, and
h) Period of full rated speeds between stops
going down.
It is observed that the handling capacity is
inversely proportional to the waiting
time which in turn is proportional to RTT.
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The round trip time can be decreased not
only by increasing the speed of the lift
but also by improving the design of the
equipment related to opening and closing
of the landing and car doors,
acceleration, deceleration, levelling and
passenger movement.

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a) The most important factor in shortening
the time consumed between the entry
and the exit of the passengers to the lift
car is the correct design of the door and
the proper car width, for comfortable
entry and exit for passengers, it has been
found that most suitable door width is
1000 mm and that of car width is 2000.
b) The utilization of centre opening doors
also favors the door opening and closing
time periods.
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Capacity :
Minimum size of car recommended
for a single purpose building is one
suitable duty load of 884 Kg. For large
building car 2040 Kg. according to
requirement.

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Layout :
The width of car is determined by
the width of entrance, and the depth of
car is regulated by loading per sq.mtr.
Permissible. Centre opening door are the
most practicable and most efficiency
entrance with for passenger lifts.

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Speed :
It is dependent upon quality of service
required and the quality of service desired.
Therefore, no set formulae for indicating
the speed can be given.

Recommended Speeds :
The following are general guidelines :

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 Office Building Passenger Lifts

Sl. No. of Floors Recommended

No. Speed
1. 4 to 5 floors 1 MPS
2. 6 to 12 floors 1.5 MPS
3. Above 12 floors Above 1.5 MPS

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 Residential Building Passenger Lifts

Sl. No. of Floors Recommended

No. Speed
1. 4 to 8 floors 1 MPS
2. 8 to 12 floors 1.5 MPS
3. Above 12 floors Above 1.5 MPS

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Hospital Lifts (Bed cum Passenger Lifts)

Sl. No. of Floors Recommended

No. Speed
1. Upto 4 floors 0.5 MPS
2. 5 to 8 floors 0.75 MPS
3. Above 8 floors 1 MPS

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 Goods Lifts

Sl. No. of Floors Recommended

No. Speed
1. Upto 6 floors 0.5 MPS
2. Above 6 floors 0.75 MPS

Note:
(1) For passenger cum gods lifts speed shall be
followed as that of passenger lifts.
(2) Actual speed shall be worked out on the basis
of traffic analysis.
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Calculation of R.T.T.
The most probable number of floors on
which lift may have to be stopped is given
by statistical formula:

Sn = n [ 1-(n-1)/n)Np]

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Where
Np= Total number of passengers entering
the car at ground floor (Entrance Lobby)
during peak period which is equal to car
capacity.
n = Total number of floors served above
ground floor.
Sn = Most probable number of stops.

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No. of upper Number of Passenger/Trip
floors served (Car Capacity)
10 12 14 16 18 20
18 8 9 10 11 12 13
16 8 9 10 10 11 12
14 7 8 9 9 10 11
12 7 8 9 9 10 10
10 6 7 8 8 9 9
8 6 6 7 7 8 8
6 5 5 6 6 7 7
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Now,
R.T.T. = Entrance lobby time + Sn x floor
serving time + Return trip time (D-2d)/Vc.
Where, Sn = Probable number of stops
D = Total Lift travel in one direction (m)
d = Distance travelled during acceleration or
deceleration (m)
Vc = Contract speed of elevator in m/s also.

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 D = ½ ft2
Where,
f = acceleration in m/sec2
t = Time for acceleration
= 2 seconds for lifts upto 2.5 m/s.

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(a)Entrance Lobby Time : This consists of
door opening, car loading, door closing
time and acceleration at entrance lobby
generally ground floor plus retardation
time (while returning from top).
(b)Floor serving time: This consists of door
opening time, transfer (loading or
unloading time), door closing time,
acceleration and de-acceleration
(retardation) time.

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 (c)Loading/ Unloading time: Practically
observed loading and unloading time for
lifts of different capacity are given
below:
No. of Entrance lobby Transfer time i.e.
Passengers Loading time in loading and
second unloading time at
upper floors
8 7 1
13 12 1.25
16 14 1.5
20 17 30 1.6
Actually average time required for
entrance of each passenger in car depends
upon total number of persons entering the
car and already available in car. It may be
one second per person when car is
partially loaded and 0.75 second when it is
completely empty. Time for emptying car
is less and equal to 0.75 second for single
person but there is a tendency that all
persons vacate the car simultaneously
after opening if the doors.
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(d)Door Opening and closing time: Door
closing time is more as compared to door
opening time. This is due to fact that
when all persons have entered in the car,
it takes time for people to select and
press the push button for summoning the
lift to various destinations.
Total time for door opening and closing
operation can be taken as given below:

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 Type of Door operation Capacity

8 13 16 20
(a) Power operated single slide 3.8 3.8 - -
(b) Power operated double slide 3.2 3.2 - -
(c) Power operated centre 2.8 2.8 3.2 3.2
Opening
(d) Collapsible with attendant 2.5 2.5 3 3

(e) Collapsible without attendant 4 4 - -

Door closing and opening time, at entrance

floor shall be one second more than all above.

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(e)Distance travelled by lift during
acceleration or retardation is assumed to
be equal. This can be calculated by using
formula.
d = ut + ½ ft2
Where U is initial speed = 0, f is
acceleration or retardation rate and t is
the time elapsed. It is assumed that
during each cycle, lifts acceleration and
retardation time is about 2 second.
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Rate of acceleration will vary with type of
as given below:
Lifts speed m/s Rate of acceleration
m/sec2
1 0.50
1.5 0.75
2.5 1.00
More than 2.4 to 8 2.50
More than 8 and 4.00
floors more than 50 35