Schindler 3300

Schindler 5300
Information on noise and vibration.
Schindler Passenger Elevators

Content Introduction
This document is intended to give an introduction to noise and vibration
Introduction aspects for the Schindler 3300 and Schindler 5300 elevator systems.
1. Ride quality It gives a short overview of the basics of noise and vibration and specifies
Jerk the values that customers can expect for these systems.
Car acceleration
Vertical car vibration Noise and vibration aspects for an elevator system cover the following
Lateral car vibration areas:
Sound in the car – Ride quality: sound and vibration inside the car
2. Sound – basics – Air-borne noise, e.g. door noise, noise in the elevator shaft
3. Vibration – basics – Structure-borne noise in walls: important, as it radiates sound into
4. Structure-borne noise adjacent rooms

The basics of these aspects will be presented in chapters 2 to 4.

During operation of an elevator, the following types of noise are present:

– Cooling fan noise (drive and frequency converter)
– Drive operation noise
– Relay switching noise (impulse noise)
– Door noise
– Guide shoe sliding noise (only during a short phase after installation)

Not every type of noise is equally disturbing. This strongly depends

on the nature of the noise, relative background noise and on psycho-
logical aspects. Please note that noise is defined as unwanted sound,
i.e. sound at the wrong place at the wrong time.
 1. Ride quality.

Ride quality is the term that stands for the following set of aspects:
– Jerk
– Car acceleration
– Vertical car vibration
– Lateral car vibration
– Sound inside the car

1.1 Jerk
Jerk, unit: m/s3, is the time-derivative of acceleration. If the elevator
moves with high jerk, acceleration changes are very abrupt and can
be felt as bumps.

1.2 Car acceleration

Car acceleration, unit: m/s2, determines how long it takes before
the car reaches its maximum speed. A high acceleration is generally
considered uncomfortable, however, it gives the impression that
the car moves very fast.

1.3 Vertical car vibration

Vibration is also measured as acceleration, unit: m/s2. This kind of
vibration can be felt by the feet of a person, but is also discerned by
the stomach and the internal ear. It is mostly caused by vibrations
of the drive and frequency converter. These are transferred to the car
by the traction media.

1.4 Lateral car vibration

Lateral car vibration is caused by non-straightness of the guide rails,
play between car and guide rails and non-smooth guide rail transitions.
Generally, it causes low-frequent lateral movements of the car.

1.5 Sound in the car

Generally, sound levels in elevators should be low enough not to
interfere with speech, but hearing the elevator in motion is desirable
from a psychological point of view.

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Noise and vibration performance

Adjacent rooms1
LpAmax 30 dB(A) incl. impulse
noise

Shaft2
LpAeq 62 dB(A)
LpAmax 65 dB(A) impulse noise

Structure-borne noise3

Octave Lamax
[Hz] [dB]
63 90
125 90
250 85
500 85

Landing

Door noise4
LpAmax 60 dB(A)

Pass-by noise
LpAmax 50 dB(A)

Impulse noise at top floor

LpAmax 55 dB(A)

Car

Sound pressure level

LpAeq 50 ±3 dB(A)
LpAmax 57 dB(A) impulse noise

Vibrations (ride quality)

Lateral
– ISO MPtP < 15 mg
– ISO A95 < 10 ±3 mg

Vertical
– ISO MPtP < 25 mg
– ISO A95 < 15 ±5 mg

1
VDI 2566-2:2004 prescribes a maximum permissible A-weighted sound level LpAmax in adjacent rooms of 30 dB(A). It is the responsibility of the architect/
building designer to ensure that the walls and roof of the shaft provide enough air-borne and structure-borne noise attenuation. The main parameter is
the area-specific mass of the hoistway wall. Table 2 of VDI 2566-2:2004 provides rules for the design of the walls depending on the room configuration.
These rules are based on standard DIN 4109 supplement 1a.

2
VDI 2566-2:2004 specifies a maximum sound pressure level in the hoistway of 75 dB(A).

3
The levels listed are the levels according to VDI 2566-2:2004. The Schindler 3300 and Schindler 5300 elevator systems generally fulfill these levels with
a large margin, depending on the type of wall.

4
VDI 2566-2:2004 specifies a maximum A-weighted sound pressure level for door noise of 65 dB(A).

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 Definitions

Sound
LpAeq A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level: the steady sound
level that, over a specified period of time, would produce the
same energy equivalence as the fluctuating sound level actually
occurring. (Can be interpreted as a mean level and measured
directly with an integrating sound level meter.)

LpAmax Maximum A-weighted sound pressure level

All sound pressure level measurements require setting “FAST”

of the sound level meter.

Vibration/structure-borne noise

Lamax Maximum acceleration level [dB] lin re: 1·10-6 m/s2

ISO MPtP ISO-weighted Maximum Peak-to-Peak vibration value, according

to ISO 18738:2003

ISO A95 ISO-weighted A95 vibration value according to ISO 18738:2003.

95% of all peaks of the ISO-weighted signal are below this value.

Applicable standards

VDI 2566-2:2004 Acoustical design for lifts without machine room

ISO 2631-1:1997 Mechanical vibration and shock – Evaluation of human exposure

to whole-body vibration – Part 1: General requirements

ISO 18738:2003 Lifts (elevators) – Measurements of lift ride quality

ISO 8041:1990 and Amd.1:1999 Human response to vibration – Measuring instrumentation

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2. Sound – basics.

Sound is an air pressure variation that is sensed by the ears. An example

of sound generating equipment is a loudspeaker. The movement of the
loudspeaker membrane causes a varying rarefaction and compression of
the air in front of it.

compression zones p0 + p(t) [Pa]

p0
p0

p0 + p(t) t[s]
rarefaction zones
Figure 2.1 The speed with which the rarefied and compressed zones travel
away from the speaker is the sound speed c. At room temperature
20 °C, c = 344 m/s.

The pressure variation p(t) is added to the local atmospheric pressure p0.
It is only this pressure variation that is heard by the ear.

To accommodate the large range of human hearing, the sound pressure

level (SPL) is defined:
p
Lp : = 20·log p
0

where:
Lp Sound pressure level [dB]
p Instantaneous sound pressure [Pa]
p0 Reference pressure, equals 20_Pa (threshold of hearing)

Normally, the sound pressure level is A-weighted, see figure 2.2.

An A-weighted sound pressure level is designated with dB(A).
A-weighting is widely considered the best weighting to represent
human hearing. Low-frequency components are strongly attenuated
by this type of frequency weighting.

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 Figure 2.2 Correction [dB]
A-weighting curve
10

–10

–20

–30

–40

–50

– 60

–70

– 80

101 102 103 104

f [Hz]

Examples of different A-weighted sound pressure levels are shown

in table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Phenomenon SPL [dB(A)]

Jet taking off, 25 meters, threshold of pain 140
Live concert 120
Heavy truck at small distance 100
Noisy office 80
Conversational speech, 1 m 60
Room at home 40
Whisper, leaves rustling 20
Threshold of hearing 0

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3. Vibration – basics.

a a Within the elevator industry, the recognized unit for vibration is milli-g
[m/s2] [mg] (mg). One mg equals ca. 0.01 m/s2. Values in mg and m/s2 can be easily
0.01 1.02 converted using table 3.1.
0.1 10.2
1 102 Subjective vibration perception
The way people “feel” vibrations depends strongly on the vibration
Table 3.1 direction. One has to distinguish between vertical vibration and hori-
The threshold of vibration perception is zontal vibration, the latter often called lateral vibration. The difference
about 2–3 mg for vertical vibrations.
in perception is resembled by the ISO-filter that is described in ISO
8041 Amd.1:1999. The filter weighting curves for horizontal and vertical
vibrations are shown in figures 3.1 and 3.2.

Figure 3.1 Weighting, dB

Filter weighting curve for horizontal
vibrations according to ISO 8041 0
Amd. 1:1999
–10

–20

–30

–40

–50

– 60

–70

– 80

0,1 0,16 0,25 0,4 0,63 1 1,6 2,5 4 6,3 10 16 25 40 63 100 160 250 400

Frequency, Hz

Figure 4.2 Weighting, dB

Filter weighting curve for vertical
vibrations according to ISO 8041 0
Amd.1:1999
–10
From the weighting curves it can be
seen that humans are most sensitive for –20
horizontal vibrations in the frequency
range 0.5–2 Hz. For vertical vibrations, –30
this range is 5–12 Hz.
–40

–50

– 60

–70

– 80

0,1 0,16 0,25 0,4 0,63 1 1,6 2,5 4 6,3 10 16 25 40 63 100 160 250 400

Frequency, Hz

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4. Structure-borne noise.

Above 20 Hz, vibration may be called structure-borne noise. Such

vibrations may generate audible sound. Generally, structure-borne noise
can be considered important for frequencies below 1000 Hz.

Standard VDI 2566-2:2004, “Acoustical design for lifts without machine

room”, presents a guideline for the amount of structure-borne noise that
may be present in a hoistway wall of an elevator. The purpose of this
guideline is to minimize perception of elevator noise in adjacent rooms
according to international standards.

Whereas vibrations have unit m/s2 or mg, structure-borne noise is

measured in dB because of its strong relation with airborne noise.
a
La : = 20·log
a0

where:
La Vibration level [dB]
a Instantaneous acceleration [m/s2]
a0 Reference acceleration according to ISO, a0 = 1·10-6 m/s2

The maximum permissible values are listed in table 4.1.

Octave band La,max These levels do not automatically guarantee that the sound pressure
mid-frequency level in adjacent rooms will not exceed 30 dB(A). The walls need
[Hz] [dB] lin re: 1E-6m/s2 to have a specific mass such that this requirement can be fulfilled.
63 90
125 90 Architects and building contractors have the responsibility to assure
250 85 that the building interface is designed appropriately.
500 85

Table 4.1

12.17.030.011.SCH.05

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