"One wheel is a bit of a problem, but if there are two wheels that rotate in opposite directions, the curved slide that connects the upper and lower docks of the wheel is not necessary.

Because at any stop, you can choose both directions up and down.

Even in extreme cases, when the gondolas on the top five floors are full, there will be no more gondolas stacked in the ground floor parking room.

Because the space between the two wheels can be used as a buffer zone for the gondola, both up and down the gondola can be docked in this buffer zone.

In addition, the vacant gondola can be quickly transported to other docking rooms through the vacancy of another wheel, so that people can be continuously transported in any direction with almost no waiting. ”

Wu Guangliang actually had his own solution in mind when they proposed to connect this circular "elevator" with a walkway.

But seeing that the "elevator" they designed can achieve the ability to continuously transport people with little to no waiting.

So I didn't bother them, let them use their imagination to see what kind of thing they could make in the end.

"If this is the case, there will be at least four gondolas at each floor at any one time, and there may be an extra set of gondolas on the ground floor to cope with possible spikes in usage.

In this way, two wheeled elevators with seven floors in different directions of operation require a total of 28 gondolas to ensure that there are gondolas available at any of the stops at any time.

With so many gondolas, if there is a single transportation demand at the same time in the upper and lower peaks, even if a gondola can only carry five people, this motor must be able to carry at least 30 people and the weight of 14 gondolas.

With such a large motor power, the energy consumption should not be small, right? ”

"In fact, because the structure of the wheels themselves is symmetrical, when the rising gondola turns past the apex, it automatically converts gravity into the lifting force of the other gondola.

Therefore, most of the weight of the gondola involved in transportation on wheels can be offset by its own structure.

The power of this motor only needs to meet the lifting capacity of thirty people.

In the case that the number of people up and down is almost the same at the same time, due to this special structure, the power of this motor actually only needs to meet the weight of the difference between the number of people up and down.

If there are a large number of people going down at the same time, it can use its own gravity difference to push the wheels to rotate, and the motor can hardly work, and even can be used as an energy recovery device to prevent the wheels from running too fast while recovering energy. ”

"The conversion efficiency of electrical energy is not very high, and it is better to use the energy storage device of the manpower generator to recover the kinetic energy."

"Yes, since the axes of these two wheels running in opposite directions are fixed, we can use this round shaft to connect with the gravity buffer energy storage device of a large manpower generator with gears and chains, and convert the rotating force into potential energy for temporary storage.

In the case of a large number of uprunners, the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy by mechanical means to drive the wheels to rotate.

Since the number of residents upstairs is a certain number, the number of times they go up and down the stairs every day is almost the same.

Therefore, calculated from the perspective of energy conversion, the potential energy of the upstairs residents going downstairs is converted into the potential energy of the gravity buffer energy storage device, and the potential energy stored by the gravity buffer energy storage device is converted into the potential energy of the residents going upstairs when needed.

Even if there is some loss in the process of mechanical transmission, this loss can be easily compensated by the motor.

In other words, the comprehensive operating energy consumption of such an elevator is quite small. ”

"Theoretically, the consumption of electricity is greatly reduced due to the presence of gravity-buffered energy storage devices.

Since its comprehensive operating energy consumption is already so small, it is better for us to add another thing to it.

The aisle on the lower level of this elevator has an upper aisle to shelter it from the elements, but the top floor is empty.

At this height where there is no occlusion, we have two options.

One is to install solar panels on the roof of the top aisle to store the solar energy for the compensatory operation of the elevator.

However, the storage of electricity is not ideal, and a large part of the electrical energy will be lost due to multiple energy conversions.

Moreover, there are also some problems in the selection of storage equipment.

The battery has a large storage capacity, but the charging time is long, and its service life is not very long, and the power storage capacity is very seriously attenuated.

If I used the supercapacitors on the locomotive as a storage device, the storage capacity was not very large, and I was worried that there might be a shortage of power at night. ”

"And what's the second option?"

"The second option is to install a fan on the top of the runner, and then convert the wind energy obtained by the fan into the potential energy of the gravity energy storage device through the reducer structure and store it.

If the power of the fan is chosen correctly, I even think that the wheel can operate automatically without an external power source, except for the stop point that needs to be electrically driven to hang the gondola on or off the wheel. ”

"If you don't use electricity, can this still be called an 'elevator'?"

"This thing shouldn't be called an 'elevator' in the first place, you see where it looks like a ladder."

Wu Guangliang didn't react on the surface when he saw the plan they finally discussed, but in fact, his heart was already in a very shocked state.

Such a design, if you don't take into account its footprint, almost reaches an extreme level of use of energy.

The wind energy in the air is converted into a force that can drive the gravity buffer energy storage device through a high-ratio reducer, and then the energy is stored and used as a compensation power for the operation of the equipment.

If there is a surplus of this energy, it can even be converted into electricity and stored for the operation of the transmission equipment at the order.

In the morning, residents who want to go downstairs enter the gondola parked at the stop, are wheeled by the stop's equipment, and then slowly descend to the ground floor under the action of gravity.

In this process, the rotation of the wheels does not consume almost any energy, but instead stores the excess energy through the energy storage device when controlling the descending speed of the gondola.

At the peak of use during the day, when the number of people up and down is the same, only a small part of the potential energy is needed to realize the operation of the wheel.

During this period, the overhead wind turbine is still constantly getting energy from the sky to make up for the losses during the day.

If the design is reasonable, and the optimal energy matching ratio is experimented, the realization of passive automatic operation is not a dream at all.

What surprised Wu Guangliang the most was that this way of going up and down the stairs quickly and safely without waiting completely subverted his previous impression of the elevator.

When he put together everything they had discussed in his mind, a familiar picture appeared in his mind.

When imagining that picture, Wu Guangliang couldn't help but say: "Mini Ferris wheel? ”