Oscillation Reduction Method for Fast Crane Operation

Abstract

Crane-related fatalities continue to occur in the construction industry according to recent surveys. This research provides a simple and safe oscillation reduction method for fast crane operation. We used two related acceleration and deceleration in piecewise fashion to control the crane. Our method is to reduce the sway angle and to reach high speed operation. We studied the method analytically, numerically and experimentally. We found analytically the operational time was approximately proportional to the square root of the operation distance; a fourfold increase in distance required only twofold increase in operational time. In comparing to a common method in 100 m operation distance, the numerical simulations suggest that the operation time is 25% faster when the maximum sway angle is the same, or the sway angle is 44% smaller when the operation time is the same.