Visual Simulation

The design and specification of lift systems for large buildings is a complex process. This complexity is demonstrated by the fact that some solutions adopted in high rise buildings are considered sub-optimal. Large modern buildings often incorporate shuttle lifts that take people to a sky lobby, from which local lifts take people on to their final destination and, to date, it has not been possible to model this whole system.

In the late 1970’s the use of computer simulation to evaluate lift systems was introduced by the former chairman of Lerch Bates Ltd Dr George Barney (Barney and Dos Santos, 1977). Around 1998 a PC-based simulation program was developed for general use by Peters (Peters, 1998) This program, called ELEVATE, enabled users to model most types of buildings with associated lift control systems and types of traffic. It could not look at multiple groups of lifts in operation in parallel nor did it account for designs involving sky lobbies, double deck lifts with advanced “destination” hall call control or address the various other important parameters of design including building space taken, capital cost estimates or the generation of a 3-D Building Information Model of the proposed lift services.

Currently the “state of the art” from the viewpoint of independent lift system simulation resources is the availability of either “PC-LSD”, a program developed by Barney or “Elevate” a program developed by Peters. Some of the major lift contractors have also developed “in house” simulation tools. The limited functionality of the current programs means that the designer must have considerable experience and tacit knowledge of how to address all the variables involved. The current systems are also often not compatible with the planning requirements of modern lifts which now increasingly incorporate destination hall-call control systems where users “book” their calls even before they enter the lift lobby and where the “booking terminals” can be some distance away from the lift lobby.

Recent advances in software development have provided the opportunity to develop an Expert System based upon a Building Traffic Simulator. Such a system would allow consultant’s expertise in the form of rules that could be captured together with their in-depth knowledge of lift system design, to meet a wide range of needs, including:

• Calculations of the space taken, i.e. physical dimensions of a system that can be transferred as a Building Information Model into architectural CAD packages. This enables the building efficiency to be calculated i.e. the net to gross rentable space figure.

• Graphical performance output demonstrating the system’s performance under differing traffic situations, efficiency curves and information in graphical format.

• Visual demonstration of performance to interested parties e.g. architects and developers enabling any long wait passengers or substantial queuing to be seen in a visual simulation of the operation of the lift services.

The “Visual Simulation” project that Lerch Bates is undertaking under the auspices of a two associate Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Kingston University is an ambitious project to develop a “next generation” set of computer-aided tools for the design of elevator systems in buildings. For more information about these new services please contact us.