What Building Engineers Need to Know About Elevator Analysis

Elevator analysis — the systematic evaluation of how a proposed or existing elevator system will perform under the demands of its building — is a discipline that sits at the intersection of engineering, statistics, and building science. For engineers working on buildings where vertical transportation is a significant design consideration, understanding what elevator analysis involves and what it can tell you is fundamental professional knowledge.

The Purpose of Elevator Analysis

The central purpose of elevator analysis is to predict the performance of a lift system before it is installed, and to verify that the predicted performance meets the requirements established for the building. In a world where lift systems cost hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds to install and replace, the investment in rigorous analysis before specification is justified many times over by the cost of getting the specification wrong.

Analysis serves several specific purposes in the design process. In the early design stage, it informs the core design — helping establish how many lift shafts are needed, what their dimensions should be, and how they should be arranged to support the required system performance. In the detailed design stage, it verifies that the specified system configuration will meet the performance requirements. In the commissioning stage, it provides benchmarks against which actual system performance can be assessed.

For existing buildings, elevator analysis serves additional purposes — assessing whether the current system is performing to its design intent, identifying the causes of performance shortfalls, and evaluating the options for improvement. These include changes to the control system, adding or replacing cars, or introducing destination dispatch systems that can improve performance without major structural intervention.

AdSimulo provides the simulation capability needed for all of these applications, with a platform that handles both the design analysis of new systems and the performance evaluation of existing ones within a unified software environment.

Understanding the Key Performance Metrics

Elevator analysis produces a range of performance metrics, and understanding what each means and how it relates to occupant experience is important for anyone interpreting analysis results or specifying performance requirements.

Average waiting time is the most commonly cited performance metric, and the one that occupants experience most directly. It measures the average time between a passenger pressing the call button and a lift car arriving at their floor. Industry benchmarks vary by building type, but for commercial office buildings, average waiting times below 30 seconds are generally considered good and above 45 seconds are considered poor.

Handling capacity is the measure of how many passengers the system can transport per five minutes, expressed as a percentage of the building population. For a system that needs to handle the morning peak arrival of office workers, a handling capacity of 12 to 15 percent of the building population per five minutes is typically specified.

Average journey time, which combines waiting time and travel time, provides a measure of the total time a passenger invests in each lift trip. In high-rise buildings where travel times are significant, optimising journey time rather than waiting time alone can lead to different system configurations and control strategies.

According to CIBSE Guide D, the selection of appropriate performance criteria is a critical step in the design process, and the guide provides detailed benchmarks for different building types and occupancy profiles.

Simulation Versus Analytical Methods

The choice between simulation-based and analytical methods for elevator analysis is one that practitioners make regularly, and understanding the trade-offs is important for using each method appropriately.

Analytical methods, based on the classical round trip time calculation and related formulas, are fast, transparent, and well-suited to straightforward buildings with regular floor populations. They have the advantage of being simple enough to explain to clients and check manually, and their assumptions are explicit and well-understood. For many building types, they remain the appropriate first-line analysis tool.

Simulation methods model the lift system’s behaviour dynamically over time, representing the variability of passenger arrivals, the response of the control system, and the resulting performance across a range of conditions. They produce more detailed and more realistic performance estimates for complex buildings, but require more time to set up and more expertise to interpret correctly.

For engineers seeking elevator analysis capability that spans both approaches — providing the speed and transparency of analytical methods for straightforward cases and the rigour of simulation for complex ones — AdSimulo offers a platform designed for professional practice across the full range of vertical transportation analysis requirements. Contact their team to discuss which approach is appropriate for your current projects.

The AdSimulo Platform in Practice

AdSimulo is designed for engineers and consultants who need professional-grade lift traffic simulation without the steep learning curve of traditional specialist tools. The platform makes advanced simulation methodology accessible through a streamlined interface that guides users through the process of defining the building, specifying the lift system, running the simulation, and interpreting the results.

The software handles the underlying computational complexity — the Monte Carlo simulation engine, the statistical analysis of results, the production of output reports — allowing users to focus on the engineering decisions rather than the mechanics of the software. This means that rigorous simulation analysis can be incorporated into a standard design workflow without requiring dedicated specialist time for every project.

The platform is cloud-based, meaning no installation is required and results are accessible from any device. Updates are delivered automatically, ensuring that users always have access to the current version of the software and the most recent analytical methods. For practices working across multiple offices or with remote team members, the cloud architecture eliminates the version management and access issues that desktop software creates.

For building professionals ready to adopt simulation-based vertical transportation analysis as a standard part of their practice, AdSimulo offers the starting point. Contact their team today to arrange a demonstration and explore how the platform handles the specific project types your practice works on.

AdSimulo’s track record with lift engineers and building services consultants across multiple markets makes it the platform of choice for practitioners who take vertical transportation analysis seriously.