The difference in the uplift force at each support point of a container crane between FSI analysis and a wind tunnel test

Abstract

We analyzed the difference between FSI (fluid-structure interaction) analysis and a wind tunnel test regarding the uplift force at each support point of a container crane and also design stowing devices — a tie-down rod and a stowage pin — and an alarm system to prevent overturning of a container crane under wind loads. We know that FSI analysis agrees more with wind tunnel tests than with structural analysis, but the results of FSI analysis are different from those of the tests. To evaluate the effect of the wind load on the stability of the crane, two container cranes that are widely used in container terminals-50 ton-class and 61 ton-class container cranes-are adopted for the analytic model and 19 values are considered for the wind direction as the design parameter. First, a wind tunnel test for the reduced-scale container crane model is performed according to the wind direction using an Eiffel-type atmospheric boundary-layer wind tunnel. Next, FSI analysis for a full-scale container crane is conducted using ANSYS and CFX. Then, the uplift force obtained from FSI analysis is compared with that yielded by the wind tunnel test. Finally, a formula is suggested to compensate the difference between FSI analysis and the wind tunnel test.