DEDAN KIMATHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

ELEC & ELEC ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

EEE 4101 CONTROL ENGINEERING I

ETI 4101 CONTROL ENGINEERING I

SIMULATION LAB

Title: design and simulation of an elevator system

1 Introduction
You are hired as a team of five engineers to design, model and simulate an elevator system to transport employees
of an upcoming fab to several floors of a cleanroom. Your job is to ensure safety and comport of the passenger
and the payload. To this end, you will be required to model and simulate the elevator system and determine safe
parameters for safe and smooth operation.

2 System description
The system is configured as in Figure 1 below.

Pulley A Belt Pulley B

Motor Winch C

Figure 1: Elevator system for a Fab

The system is driven by a permanent magnet dc motor. The equivalent circuit of the dc motor is confined to
the armature circuit shown in Figure 2 below. where

Ra La

+ +
Va ea
- -

Figure 2: Armature circuit

Ra - Armature resistance
La - Armature inductance
Va - Armature supply
ea - Back emf
Given that the back emf generated in the armature winding is proportional to the rotor speed, ea = kf θ̇ and
the motor torque τm is proportional to the armature current, τm = kt ia where kf and kt are constants.

Task No. 1. Motor dynamics Part 1

i). Using KVL on the rotor circuit, derive the voltage equation
ii). Laplace transform the equation
iii). Express the armature current in terms of the supply voltage and the back emf
iv). Draw a standard block diagram representation of the system yielding the armature current.
Task No. 2. Motor dynamics part 2
 i). Laplace transform the expressions for emf generated and motor torque
ii). Draw a standard block diagrams representation of the system yielding the back emf and motor
torque
Task No. 3. Rotational load dynamics
Ignoring belt elasticity, given that the belt ratio is k and that the winch and pulley B have a combined
moment of Inertia Jw and damping factor Bw , forces acting of the pulley-winch arrangement are as
shown in 3 below

Jw θ¨m
θ m τm J w , B w Bw θm˙

rw

Fb , F k
Figure 3: Elevator system for a Fab

Where a rope having damping constant Br and spring constant kr is used to hoist the car. The rope
is therefore exerting a force component Fb and Fk as a result. Assuming x > rw θm

i). Derive the net force equation on the flywheel in time domain
ii). Laplace transform the equation
iii). Express the motor torque in terms of the balancing forces
iv). Draw a standard block diagram representation of the system yielding from the motor torque

Task No. 4. Translational load dynamics

An elevator car having tare weight of Mt and payload of Mp is secured at the end of the rope as
shown in Figure 4 below where M = Mt + Mp

Fb , F k

Fb Fk

M = Mt + Mp x

Figure 4: Elevator car

i). Derive the net force equation of the translational rope-car system in time domain
ii). Laplace transform the equation
iii). Express the motor torque in terms of the balancing forces
 iv). Draw a standard block diagram representation of the system yielding from the motor torque

Task No. 5. Entire system

i). Combine the blocks developed so far to form the permanent magnet dc motor control system
to the rope dynamics

3 Matlab simulation
Given the following in Table 1

Table 1: System specification

No. Variable Value Description
1 Ra 0.2 Armature resistance in Ω
2 La 1 Armature inductance in H
3 Jw 1 Moment of Inertia of the pulley B - winch setup
4 Bw 1 Damping coefficient of the pulley B - winch setup
5 kf 1 Back emf coefficient in rad/V
6 kt 1 Motor torque coefficient in N mA−1
7 kg 10 Belt ratio between pulley A and pulley B
8 Br 1 Rope damping coefficient
9 kr 1 Rope spring constant
10 Mt 100 Tare weight in kgs
11 Mp - Payload weight in kgs
12 g 9.81 gravity in ms−2
13 rw 0.5 radius in m

For K = 1, integrate the system derived so far into Figure 5

xd (t) Va (s) X(s)

K
−

Figure 5: Unity feedback loop

i). For K = 1, simulate the system with Mp = 0Kg;

ii). In steps of 20kg, repeat the simulation above upto Mp = 100kg
iii). With Mp = 0Kg, increase the controller gain K in steps of 1 to 5.

iv). Plot the root locus of the system for K in steps of 1 to 5 to explain your observation.
v). Is the elevator comfortable na safe?
vi). What do you suggest be done to enhance comfort and safety.

4 Writing of report
i). Reference style must be IEEE style.
ii). All graphs must be drawn using Matlab/Octave and saved as .eps format.

iii). The document must be written in LATEXand should be at least 5 A4 pages long excluding the references and
the appendix.
iv). References should be peer reviewed journal or conferences papers and in books where applicable(referencing
of books is not encouraged).
v). Avoid unethical practices like word for word copy pasting, plagiarism, cropping of equations and figures etc.

©Waweru Njeri 2023