Interactive and Dynamic Integrated Module for Mobile Cranes Supporting System Design

Abstract

Analyzing and designing a crane supporting system can be time-consuming process. In particular, the dynamic nature of mobile crane operations entails a variety of reaction values for truck and crawler cranes. The platform of a mobile crane can either be set on outriggers—denoted as a truck crane, or on a crawler tracks—denoted as a crawler crane. Designing of a mobile crane supporting system depends on the lifting configuration, type of crane and the type of materials to be used under the crane outriggers or crawler tracks. This paper presents an automated system which is designed to assist practitioners in calculating the mobile crane’s support reactions and in designing the supporting system. This system is developed such that it can generate a 2D reaction influence chart which shows the reactions for each outrigger at varying horizontal swing angles and vertical boom angles to the ground. Most of the geometric configurations needed to perform the support design are not ordinarily given in crane manufacturer’s manual and to address this deficiency, this newly developed system has been integrated with a previously developed crane database which contains information on widely used mobile cranes for construction along with a crane selection system. A case example is described in order to demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the presented system in automating crane lift analysis.