Simulation Model to Optimize Transfer Operation of Construction Lifts for Super High-rise Buildings

Abstract

Recently, the number of super high-rise building projects have been increased after recovering from international financial crisis. In super high-rise building project, vertical lifting is critical to overall project productivity, due to its limited number of lifting equipment. Also for projects which buildings height are higher than 400m, transfer operation in lifting is inevitable because of lifts maximum lifting height. In transfer operation, setting a transfer floor is essential for saving lifting time of resources. In this research, using discrete event simulation modeling with AnyLogic 7.0 software, module of a single lift operation has been established, and with multiple modules, the simulation model of lift system with transfer operation has been built. Based on this model, optimization model for finding the optimal transfer floor has been built on OptQuest software, using the metaheuristic optimization method. By using this optimization model, the method of optimizing a transfer floor for workers during the morning peak time has been proposed. Comparing to the result of the case which transfer floor is designated to the middle floor, setting optimized transfer floor significantly decreased the total lifting time of workers. Also patterns of the change of lifting time on the variation of transfer floors were presented through the analysis in the research. By using proposed simulation and optimization tool, saving budget and time through increasing available working hour is expected.