Tower Crane Safety Research Articles

A comprehensive framework for examining the influence of tower crane safe operations on sustainable practices in modular integrated construction

PurposeThis study aims to explore the tower crane safety factors (TCSFs) that influence tower crane safe operations (TCSOs) in modular integrated construction (MiC). It evaluates how the adoption of these factors contributes to achieving TCSOs and promoting sustainable practices (SPs) within MiC.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this aim, the study employed a systematic search to ensure a comprehensive collection of variables. Additionally, it conducted a questionnaire survey involving professionals and utilized a brainstorming technique to categorize the different variables. Finally, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationship between TCSOs and SPs.FindingsThe results of measurement models indicated strong convergent and discriminant validity, with each observed variable correlating well with its latent variable. Moreover, a significant positive correlation between TCSOs and SPs was evidenced by a path coefficient (β = 0.755) and a p-value of <0.05. Lastly, the structural model revealed that the independent variables strongly influence the dependent variable (i.e. SPs) by 57%, underscoring safety's pivotal role in advancing sustainability within MiC projects. These findings provide empirical evidence that improving tower crane safety can directly enhance sustainable practices, offering a dual benefit of increased safety and sustainability for the construction sector.Originality/valueThis study makes a unique and previously undiscovered contribution to the field by identifying the TCSFs in MiC and employing a novel approach by utilizing PLS-SEM to create a unique mathematical model. It offers valuable insights into the relationship between TCSFs, TCSOs and SPs, thus contributing to methodological advancements within Safety Science and providing a foundation for future research and practical implementation in the construction industry.

An estimation of the tower crane safety risk factors in the Vietnamese construction industry

The construction industry is among the riskiest sectors worldwide due to its involvement in complex and hazardous activities, primarily because of the use of tower cranes. Tower cranes are considered the most hazardous construction machinery, contributing to a high rate of serious accidents, including fatalities and disabling injuries, not only in Vietnam but also globally. In this paper, we identify and evaluate 42 tower crane safety risk factors specific to the Vietnamese construction industry based on their probability of occurrence, severity of impact, and associated risk levels. The paper reveals that the most probable risk factor is “Unfavorable winds (including intensity, direction, etc.)” with a mean value of 3.641. The factor with the highest severity is “Wire rope is broken” with a mean value of 4.179. Furthermore, the study shows that twenty-five out of forty-two (59.52%) factors present a moderate risk level, with a Relative Significant Index Score (RSIS) ranging from 8.019 to 13.047. Among these, the factor “Bad maintenance management of the tower crane and auxiliary aids” poses the highest risk level, with an RSIS value of 13.047. This paper aims to enhance the understanding oftower crane safety among subcontractors, government safety regulators, main contractors, maintenance personnel, and workers in the Vietnamese construction industry. Additionally, the methodology presented in this paper can be adapted for assessing safety risk factors in other industries within Vietnam.

Enhancing Tower Crane Safety: A UAV-Based Intelligent Inspection Approach

Tower cranes play a crucial role in the construction industry, facilitating the vertical and horizontal movement of materials and aiding in building construction, especially for high-rise structures. However, tower crane accidents can lead to severe consequences, highlighting the importance of effective safety management and inspection. This paper presents a novel approach to tower crane safety inspections using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-definition cameras and an intelligent inspection APP system. The system utilizes real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning and digital image processing to perform efficient and comprehensive inspections, reducing the reliance on manual labor and associated risks. A case study demonstrated the method’s practicality and effectiveness, with the UAV inspections capable of identifying 76.3% of major hazards, 64.8% of significant hazards, and 76.2% of general hazards within a 30-minute timeframe. Preliminary identification rates were also promising. Despite the initial requirement for manual drone piloting and the current manual review of images, the approach shows significant potential for enhancing safety in the construction industry. Future work will focus on integrating AI for hazard recognition and automating the inspection process further. The proposed method marks a step forward in tower crane safety management, offering a more efficient and accurate alternative to traditional inspection methods.

Factors That Affect Safety of Tower Crane Installation/Dismantling in Construction Industry

Abstract: This paper is to investigate factors that contribute to accidents during tower crane installation/dismantling. Accident analysis and focus group interviews (FGIs) were conducted with people involved in crane work. Accidents occurring during installation/dismantling of tower cranes accounted for 68.4% of all fatal accidents. Accident analysis identified “Not following work procedures” as one of the main causes of these accidents, followed by “unsafe acts of workers.” The FGIs investigation revealed the following factors that adversely affected the safety of the tower crane installation/dismantling: competence of the workers; roles of stakeholders such as principal contractors in the tasks; deterioration of tower crane components; and working conditions for conducting the tasks. These results may provide regulators as well as practitioners with insights for improving the safety of tower crane installation/dismantling.

Collaborative Governance of Tower Crane Safety in the Chinese Construction Industry: A Social Network Perspective

Tower crane safety governance is an important issue related to the sustainable development of China’s construction industry. The complex collaborative relationship among stakeholders determines the efficiency of tower crane safety governance. From the perspective of social networks, this study constructs a collaborative governance structure model of tower crane safety from four dimensions, i.e., transaction, supervision, dependency, and communication, and analyzes the structural characteristics of tower crane safety collaborative governance and the mutual relationship among stakeholders. The results show that the tower crane safety governance process has a strong collaborative effect, but that collaboration in terms of supervision and communication among stakeholders is currently poor. The tower crane property owner occupies the core position, so their decisions have a great impact on tower crane safety. The power of the government is too large, and the power of supervision is too small, which affects the collaboration enthusiasm of other stakeholders, thus reducing the overall collaboration efficiency. The findings provide theoretical support for tower crane safety management in the construction industry in China. The social network perspective presented in this study can be applied to clarify relationships among stakeholders in other construction safety governance fields.

On-site safety inspection of tower cranes: A blockchain-enabled conceptual framework

The on-site safety inspection is an essential procedure to ensure tower cranes’ safety in the usage stage by finding equipment defects (e.g., loose bolts) and potential environmental hazards (e.g., poor ground conditions) in advance. However, the following two issues should be tackled to secure its effectiveness: (1) how to guarantee the execution of safety inspections, especially under a tight construction schedule? and (2) how to ensure the inspection information is immutable, transparent, and traceable?This research, guided by the design science approach, aimed to develop a blockchain-enabled framework for assuring the effectiveness of on-site safety inspection of tower cranes (OSITC). First, a literature review was conducted to identify OSITC challenges and blockchain potential. Then, a blockchain-based conceptual framework was provided, with two major components: smart contracts and the consensus process, being discussed. Finally, using the Hyperledger Fabric architecture, a prototype system was developed to instantiate and test the proposed framework. The findings suggest that the blockchain can protect the OSITC’s effectiveness by allowing safety inspections to be automatically executed via smart contracts and providing relevant stakeholders with trustworthy inspection records via consensus algorithms. This study provides a novel solution for tower crane safety management to construction researchers and practitioners, inspiring more discussions about blockchain technology.

Improvement of random forest by multiple imputation applied to tower crane accident prediction with missing data

PurposeThis research is aimed at predicting tower crane accident phases with incomplete data.Design/methodology/approachThe tower crane accidents are collected for prediction model training. Random forest (RF) is used to conduct prediction. When there are missing values in the new inputs, they should be filled in advance. Nevertheless, it is difficult to collect complete data on construction site. Thus, the authors use multiple imputation (MI) method to improve RF. Finally the prediction model is applied to a case study.FindingsThe results show that multiple imputation RF (MIRF) can effectively predict tower crane accident when the data are incomplete. This research provides the importance rank of tower crane safety factors. The critical factors should be focused on site, because the missing data affect the prediction results seriously. Also the value of critical factors influences the safety of tower crane.Practical implicationThis research promotes the application of machine learning methods for accident prediction in actual projects. According to the onsite data, the authors can predict the accident phase of tower crane. The results can be used for tower crane accident prevention.Originality/valuePrevious studies have seldom predicted tower crane accidents, especially the phase of accident. This research uses tower crane data collected on site to predict the phase of the tower crane accident. The incomplete data collection is considered in this research according to the actual situation.

Safety risk analysis and control of tower crane

Tower crane is one of the vertical transport machinery widely used in the construction at present. Due to its own structure and safety management defects, accidents often occur and have serious consequences [1]. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the safety accidents of tower crane. In this paper, through a large number of accident statistical analysis and expert interviews, from the analysis of the entire process of tower crane installation, use and disassembly stage, the accident tree with the tower crane safety incident as the top event is established. Through the qualitative analysis of the accident tree, the minimum cut (diameter) set is obtained, on this basis, the structural importance of all basic events is sorted, the main factors affecting the safety accident of the tower crane are determined, and the corresponding management and control are proposed, and provide a basis for preventing tower crane accidents and controlling tower crane risks.

Wind-induced tower crane vibration and safety evaluation

The maximum wind load direction of tower crane is considered to be perpendicular to its jib. The interference effects of its different segments and across-wind loads are ignored in traditional crane safety evaluation. This study proposes a general scheme for the safety evaluation of tower cranes under fluctuating wind loads. The wind coefficients of a full-scale model of a tower crane were calculated by computational fluid dynamics, and then the time history of wind loads, simulated through the autoregressive method, were applied to the finite element model of a tower crane. The results reveal that the maximum along-wind load direction deflected 30°–60°, and the mean ratio of the absolute value of the across-wind coefficient to the along-wind coefficient of the tower crane was 8.56%, which indicated that the across-wind loads should be taken into account in wind-resistant design. Comparing the wind-induced responses of four typical wind directions, the maximum displacement, the bending stress and the axial stress of the tower crane occurred in the positive direction. Furthermore, the maximum acceleration of the cat-head was 0.028 m/s2, which met the comfort requirements of the operator. Although the tower crane met the strength and static stiffness requirements of design rules, the maximum bending stress at the junctions between the jib and the slewing platform, the counterweight and the counter-jib, exceeded the allowable stress, and the first modal of the tower crane was excited. These results warrant considering the effect of fluctuating wind loads in the safety evaluation of a tower crane.

Tower crane safety on construction sites: A complex sociotechnical system perspective

Tower crane is the lifeline of the construction industry, but tower crane accidents are still too frequent. Despite the significant progress in tower crane safety research, system thinking-based approaches are lacking. The aim of this paper is to analyze tower crane safety from a complex sociotechnical system perspective through implementing both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. Characteristics of five tower crane safety system components are summarized with a new framework comprised of five system-based levels based on Rasmussen’s risk management theory. Fifty-six contributing factors of tower crane safety were identified. The AcciMap technique was applied to qualitatively build a generic model for tower crane safety, which comprehensively presents the systems levels and casual paths of the contributing factors. A survey was conducted to quantitatively research the tower crane safety system. Nine main dimensions and 25 critical factors were found pertaining to the tower crane safety system. These results provide a new lens for tower crane safety and contribute new systems thinking applications in tower crane safety management.

Factors that affect safety of tower crane installation/dismantling in construction industry

Construction of high-rise buildings, large-scale apartment blocks, or construction in urban areas (especially busy downtowns) demands increasingly greater use of tower cranes. Therefore, the installation and dismantling of tower cranes on construction sites is an inevitable task, but also one of the most dangerous in the construction industry. Accidents during installation (including assembling and climbing) or dismantling of tower cranes incur the loss of workers’ lives as well as delays in construction schedules and/or damage to buildings under construction. The aim of this paper is to investigate factors that contribute to accidents during tower crane installation/dismantling in Korea. Accident analysis and focus group interviews (FGIs) were conducted with people involved in crane work. A total of 38 fatal accident cases involving tower cranes occurred between 2001 and 2011. Accidents occurring during installation/dismantling of tower cranes accounted for 68.4% of all fatal accidents. Accident analysis identified “Not following work procedures” as one of the main causes of these accidents, followed by “unsafe acts of workers.” The FGIs investigation revealed the following factors that adversely affected the safety of the tower crane installation/dismantling: competence of the workers; roles of stakeholders such as principal contractors in the tasks; deterioration of tower crane components; and working conditions for conducting the tasks. These results may provide regulators as well as practitioners with insights for improving the safety of tower crane installation/dismantling.

Research of Long Range Accurate Ranging Technology Based on Ultrasonic Sensor Measurement

In order to meet the requirements of long range obstacle measurement of tower crane safety warning system and accurately estimate time of flight ( TOF ), an ultrasonic long range measurement system is designed and a mathematical model of echo envelope is established in this paper. Experimental data of long range obstacle measurement were collected and analyzed by using traditional threshold method and cross correlation method, the results exposed low accuracy and poor stability problems. According to the obstacle target can be quickly located by echo peak, and echo signal time domain waveform characteristics can be reflected by envelope model method, an improved long range measurement algorithm based on combination of peak method and envelope model method is introduced. Experimental results show higher accuracy and better stability of the improved long range measurement algorithm compared with threshold method and cross correlation method

A practical application combining wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things: Safety Management System for Tower Crane Groups.

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted increasing attention in the field of computer and information science. In this paper, a specific application of IoT, named Safety Management System for Tower Crane Groups (SMS-TC), is proposed for use in the construction industry field. The operating status of each tower crane was detected by a set of customized sensors, including horizontal and vertical position sensors for the trolley, angle sensors for the jib and load, tilt and wind speed sensors for the tower body. The sensor data is collected and processed by the Tower Crane Safety Terminal Equipment (TC-STE) installed in the driver's operating room. Wireless communication between each TC-STE and the Local Monitoring Terminal (LMT) at the ground worksite were fulfilled through a Zigbee wireless network. LMT can share the status information of the whole group with each TC-STE, while the LMT records the real-time data and reports it to the Remote Supervision Platform (RSP) through General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Based on the global status data of the whole group, an anti-collision algorithm was executed in each TC-STE to ensure the safety of each tower crane during construction. Remote supervision can be fulfilled using our client software installed on a personal computer (PC) or smartphone. SMS-TC could be considered as a promising practical application that combines a Wireless Sensor Network with the Internet of Things.

Tower Crane Safety Comprehensive Evaluation Based on SVM

This paper focuses on the issues tower crane safety hard to be comprehensive evaluated, the machine learning theory is introduced to the tower crane safety analysis. Firstly, collect the tower crane operating parameters as samples, the SVM classifier make supervised-learning on the samples data, established classification model and running parameters are used to evaluate the secure state. In addition, the effect of different kernel functions and parameters on SVM classifier is discussed, parameters are selected after optimization by mixed method of cross-validation and grid search. Experiments show that optimized SVM model can judge Tower crane safety correctly.

Anti-Collision of Tower Crane via Ultrasonic Neural Networks

The mainstream anti-collision method was still a passive security model represented by working area limitation technology, which lacked flexibility and initiative. This paper presented a practical anti-collision method which used ultrasonic sensors to obtain the accurate profile of barriers through information fusion techniques such as Elman neural networks time fusion, SOM neural networks space fusion, etc, gave operators sufficient time to take corrective action in alarm mode before a collision occurs. It was verified via simulation and experiment that the method could use in the different tower crane flexibly, detect multiple types of barriers initiatively, determine the surface outline and position of barriers accurately, meet the requirement of tower crane safety fully. Moreover, this method had characteristics of low cost, high precision, real-time.

Research on Wireless Sensor Network Node for Tower Crane Safety Monitoring System

Based on the status of tower crane safety monitoring for construction project, the Internet of things technology is applied for tower crane safety monitoring and early warning system, the WSN nodes are designed for displacement, stress and distance monitoring function. Through the wireless transceiver module CC2530, field monitoring data are uploaded timely and accurately to the monitoring center PC, for real-time display and processing. If the monitoring data exceeds the alarm value, the alarm signal will be sent out immediately, to prevent tower crane accidents effectively, and ensure the safe of crane operation. By the network debugging, WSN node performance is reliable, and the measuring data is accurate. It has high performance to price ratio and application value.

Research of Embedded Tower Crane Monitoring System Based on FCS

To compensate for the lack of traditional safety limit device of tower crane, a design scheme of embedded tower crane intelligent monitoring system based on Fieldbus Control System was proposed. By this, online collection and transmission of tower crane real-time conditions were achieved, which could effectively improve the reliability and anti-interference of the system. Embedded development technology was used to build ARM-based master control platform. Embedded Linux cross-compiler environment was also built. Combining with embedded programming software, human-computer interaction interface of tower crane intelligent monitoring system was built, storage and display of tower crane’s online parameters were also realized. The use of the technology has opened up a new field of tower crane condition monitoring application. The research of this paper may provide reference for tower crane safety monitoring and fault diagnosing. DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v12i2.4326

Enhancing Tower Crane Safety Using Condition Monitoring System

Tower crane is playing a more and more important role in the construction of high-rise buildings. However, crane operators do not acquire adequate conditioning information from tower crane itself to control the tower crane. In order to work safer and more efficient, this paper presents a condition monitoring system (CMS) that provides a solution to receive sufficient information. The CMS can monitor the detailed and comprehensive information, such as lifting moment, swing amplitude and lifting weight, which is related to the safety of tower crane in real time with sense, signal processing and wireless technologies. This CMS aims at degrading the tower crane accidents and protecting the project manager, construction equipment and operators from dangerous situation.

Signal Acquisition and Process on Tower Crane Safety Control System

Tower crane collapse accidents occur frequently, personal injury or death became a common occurrence. According to the nationalGB12602-2011 lifting mechanical overload protection device security technical specifications, security and monitoring equipment must be installed on the tower crane. The GPRS and U disk storage tower crane control system has catered to the national security specified requirements, record and inquires can be realized, at the same time, the control system can achieve data wireless remote. Supervising person that in the units can monitor the construction site online. Meanwhile, the system can control the tower crane operations according to the specific situation of overrun.

Research on Tower Crane Safety Control System Based on GPRS and U Disk Storage

Driven by the interests of the construction unit, field workers illegal operations and other reasons, tower crane collapse accidents occur frequently, personal injury or death became common occurrence. According to the nationalGB12602-2010 lifting mechanical overload protection device security technical specifications, security and monitoring equipment must be installed on the tower crane. The GPRS and U disk storage tower crane control system has catered to the national security specified requirements. By the control system, the data can not only be recorded and inquired, well it can also be wireless remote transmitted. Supervisors who are in units can also monitor the construction site online. Meanwhile, the system can control the tower crane operations according to the specific situation of overrun. The system has a good promotional value.