Seismic Performance of Elevators in Hoist Ways: Principles and Design Methodology

Elevators comprise components prone to earthquakes which should be protected against failures. Elevators installed in and around the Great Rift Valley are subjected to seismic effects. Dynamic Performance of elevators depends mainly on the contact between the guide rails and sliding shoes. Only few studies had been conducted to improve it. This book discusses seismic performance of elevators based on rail-slide shoe-counterweight connections. Lumped parameter dynamic and analytic models are generated for possible causes of nonlinearities; then equations of motions are formulated. To verify the analysis, a case study is conducted based on an elevator installed in Bole area that lies in zone-3 of the seismic map of Addis Ababa. The problem is analyzed with EBCS code and the PSD. It is found that EBCS code is inept to handle random vibrations like the earthquake motion and a code revision is suggested. Moreover, elevators constructed in Ethiopia found not to resist seismic motions larger than 0.1g.