When Will an Elevator Arrive?

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of elevator passenger flow in tall buildings, analyzing wait times, queue lengths, and synchronization phenomena during start-of-day operations through a minimalist approach validated by simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified model for elevator operation during peak start-of-day, providing analytical insights into wait times and system synchronization not previously detailed.

Findings

Derived distributions of passenger wait times.

Identified conditions for transition to synchronized elevator movement.

Validated predictions with event-driven simulations.

Abstract

We present and analyze a minimalist model for the vertical transport of people in a tall building by elevators. We focus on start-of-day operation in which people arrive at the ground floor of the building at a fixed rate. When an elevator arrives on the ground floor, passengers enter until the elevator capacity is reached, and then they are transported to their destination floors. We determine the distribution of times that each person waits until an elevator arrives, the number of people waiting for elevators, and transition to synchrony for multiple elevators when the arrival rate of people is sufficiently large. We validate many of our predictions by event-driven simulations.