In-plane Mechanical Model of the Roller Guide-rail System in Elevators
Xiaoyan Wang1, Wensheng Lu1, Baofeng Huang2, Khalid M. Mosalam3
1 College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
wxyjennifer@163.com
wally@tongji.edu.cn
2 College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China
baofeng@njtech.edu.cn
3 Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, United States
mosalam@berkeley.edu
Abstract. The contact mechanism between the roller guide and the rail is important for the seismic performance of elevators in tall buildings. Under strong earthquakes, the mechanical properties of the roller guide-rail system present nonlinear. This paper developed a theoretical model of the roller guide-rail contact and static tests of the guide roller-rail system were performed for model validation. The clearance between the retainer plate and the rail, the pre-tightening length of the helical spring, and the positions of the helical spring and rubber block in the roller guide represented the test parameters were changed during the experimental program and the corresponding structural responses were observed. The results show that the mechanical behaviors of the roller guide-rail system are influenced by the above-mentioned parameters. Based on the principles of force balance and deformation coordination relationships of the proposed model, the predicted behaviors of the roller guide-rail system were compared with test results. It is verified that the proposed theoretical model of roller guide-rail system clearly explains the contact mechanism between the roller guide and rail and is able to fill the knowledge gap on the roller guide-rail contact in the modeling of elevator system.
Keywords: Contact, Elevator, Force-displacement relationship, Nonlinear, Roller guide
