Elevator Rope Sway Mitigation via Building Motion Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Elevator rope sway caused by building movements such as swaying due to wind or earthquakes leads to rope degradation, noise, entanglement, and potential damage to elevator components, necessitating a solution to minimize these issues while maintaining elevator service.
Innovation Solution
A control system that detects building motion exceeding a threshold, adjusts rope tension to shift natural resonance away from building sway, and controls access to elevator decks to mitigate rope sway by limiting service or modifying car operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If elevator service continues during building sway, then productivity is maintained, but rope sway increases causing degradation and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts elevator service operations based on real-time building sway conditions. When sway exceeds thresholds, the system modifies deck access patterns and rope tensioning strategies to mitigate rope sway while maintaining service where safe. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making service continuity conditional on safety parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes operational parameters (deck access permissions, rope tension levels, service speeds) based on detected building motion parameters. By adjusting these parameters in response to sway conditions, the system maintains productivity when safe while preventing rope degradation when sway is excessive.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If rope tension is adjusted to shift natural resonance, then rope sway is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback from motion sensors detecting building sway to automatically adjust rope tension and deck access operations. This closed-loop feedback mechanism reduces rope sway by counteracting resonant conditions while keeping the control system complexity manageable through automated rather than manual adjustment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex mechanical rope tensioning mechanisms with sensor-based detection and control algorithms that calculate optimal tension adjustments. This substitution reduces physical complexity while achieving the same rope sway mitigation effect through intelligent control.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If deck access is controlled during sway, then rope sway is minimized, but ease of operation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial access control rather than complete shutdown during sway events. By selectively limiting access to only those decks where rope sway would be problematic, the system minimizes rope sway while maintaining convenience for unaffected decks, avoiding excessive restriction of operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Reduces rope sway, minimizes noise and damage, and allows continued elevator service by adjusting tension and controlling deck access based on detected building motion, ensuring safety and reducing maintenance costs.
Implementation Method 1
adjusts rope tension to shift natural resonance away from building sway
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are directed to detecting motion of a building housing a multi-deck elevator system, determining, by a processing device, that the detected motion of the building is greater than a threshold, and controlling access to at least one deck of the elevator system based on determining that the detected motion of the building is greater than the threshold such that the at least one deck still is enabled to traverse a hoist-way of the elevator system.