Design of a high capacity derrick crane considering the effects induced by load application and release

The main object of this paper is to design a very big derrick crane (the main boom is 80 m in length and the payload is 60 t) considering the dynamical effects induced by moving a load. The research was developed through analytical calculation models for the preliminary design of the crane; subsequently many different finite element model analyses (FEM) were performed in order to evaluate the dynamical behavior of the crane. For this purpose different moving load patters were implemented in the numerical analyses in order to study the dynamical response of the crane in time. The numerical results show that the dynamical actions induced by sudden load release are much higher than those induced by using the crane in normal load conditions and that the magnitude of these actions are correlated to the geometrical crane configurations. The results also show that the buckling phenomenon is the most critical point of view for this type of crane and it justifies the collapse of the boom in a similar crane.