Energy Efficient Elevator

basmano

24th September 2011 - 09:45 PM

Hey ppl,

My work as a graduate is on a design of an energy efficient elevator. it muse use minimal energy and less travel time(time of operation) when compared to the currently in-use ones. am thinking of varying the speed based on weight on the elevator but not sure how far it works out. pls help me with any good ideas upon this.

Thanks

rpenner

25th September 2011 - 03:29 PM

Well the single-elevator, two story building is the simplest case...

Another constraint is if the user interface is an up-down button or a floor-request choice.

A third constraint is the location of alternate methods of moving between floors and their attractiveness: stairs, slides, brass firemen's poles, ladders, rocks with handholds, etc.

If everyone takes the stairs because the elevator is cramped, smelly, slow and lurches alarmingly, you have an energy-efficient design!

Confused1

25th September 2011 - 04:09 PM

Use a basket full of rocks as a counter-balance. People going down raise rocks up the building. To bring people up, the lift supervisor simply adds rocks to the basket until the lift rises. At quiet times a small electric motor (or the lift supervisor) carries rocks up the building to ensure there are always sufficient rocks available at the top of the building. One might contemplate using water instead of rocks.
-C2.

Beer w/Straw

25th September 2011 - 04:14 PM

Kinda what C2 said, but use slave labour so you don't have to pay anyone!

boit

25th September 2011 - 04:31 PM

Nothing new under this side of the sun. http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=27616

Confused1

25th September 2011 - 09:34 PM

There are many species of insect which will fly or crawl towards a light. Obviously they have some inbuilt limit otherwise they would have flown or crawled to destruction - let us assume this limit can be understood and incorporated into the design. Let the experiment commence with wasps, partly because they fly towards lights and (mostly) because I don't like them very much (been stung a few times).
The building requires an additional vertical tunnel for the wasps to fly up (or crawl up if they get tired of flying - I don't mind how they do it). At the top of the tunnel the wasps are encouraged to move into an R&R zone which is (coincidentally) a counterweight which will raise the lift as/when required.

boit

26th September 2011 - 04:25 AM

O.K. Just connect the darn thing to a gym and guys will be lifting the elevator instead of just weights. Or better still let's have an elevaor that takes passangers oonl one direction. Vertical down. Now that's easy.

Beer w/Straw

26th September 2011 - 04:31 AM

Make it harness the power of dark energy in bursts to overcome gravity.

boit

26th September 2011 - 03:48 PM

QUOTE (Beer w/Straw+Sep 26 2011, 07:31 AM)

Make it harness the power of dark energy in bursts to overcome gravity.

Or let's resurrect the anti-gravity research (euphemism for levitation). I know no serious scientist want to touch that even with a ten light year pole but never underestimate the politician. They can stick it right up their a$$.

Kino

26th September 2011 - 04:45 PM

Just brainstorming on a slow afternoon. It's up to you to do the maths.

Regenerative braking/descent.

Adjustable counter-weighting. Lifts in pairs, one going up as the other goes down, so less counterweighting needed.

Lightest possible frame. How much structural rigidity can you off-load onto the liftshaft?

Lightest possible cables - carbon fibre.

Limit contact with the shaft - maglev guides instead of wheels.

What are the aerodynamic considerations of a lift in a shaft? Worth pumping air around?

Any renewable sources you can harvest? Solar panels on an external shaft? How much energy can you harvest from people trooping in and out of the lift and radiating heat while they're in there?

Better algorithms - I've read that floor selection outside the lift improves efficiency.

Faster (un)loading times - multiple doors?

Continuously variable transmission for optimum motor speed at all times.

Kill the lights when empty and the doors are closed. Use natural light where possible.

Can you press the lift shaft into use as a solar chimney? Provide a secondary service for free?

boit

26th September 2011 - 06:37 PM

@ Kino. Now this is getting serious and mainstream. Works well with guys doing shifts. As the second group goes for lunch the first is arriving back. I'm getting plenty of classical mechanics as well (regenerative braking, CVT and all). There is something there.
Where is dhcracker to model this out?

Kino

26th September 2011 - 10:37 PM

I was actually assuming that the OP would fill in the details to work out what, if any, of what I wrote is worthwhile. My willingness to do someone else's job for them for free only goes so far...

boit

27th September 2011 - 03:23 PM

Watching Sindbird hoisting himself up ship masts by cutting ropes whose ends are anchored on the deck and the other looped over the cross-beam and attached to weights didn't inspire much. What set me thinking is seeing George of the Jungle travelling across the jungle fast by means of swings (pendulum). I imagined building several tower a la suspension bridges and with primed cables that will hook to a passenger car as it swings along. Just a little energy boost is needed to overcome friction and air resistance. Can work well in high altitude and it is green! What's that for an idea?

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