Identification and experimental validation of a scalable elevator verticaldynamic model

A reliable model of an elevator's vertical motion is of tremendous value in many aspects of elevator design, installation and service. The challenges in developing and validating a dynamic model for an elevator arise from the large size of the dynamic system involved, its position-dependent or time- varying nature and from the limited number of variables available for measu rement. In this paper, a physics-based dynamic model of an elevator's verti cal motion, scalable to varying rises, is first derived. Then, extensive ex perimental data is obtained from two elevator systems with rises over 100 a nd 250 m. The corresponding parameters of the two elevator systems are iden tified via modal analysis and a numerical mode-matching procedure so that t he model-predicted transfer functions may best match the experimentally est imated ones. The scalability of the model is subsequently examined to exten d the validity of the model to untested elevator systems. Finally, the expe rimentally validated model is successfully used in predicting the performan ce indices of high-rise elevators. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.