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Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 586 593

International Workshop on Automobile, Power and Energy Engineering

Analysis for Dynamic Characteristics in Load-lifting system

of the Crane
Hanjun Pua*, Xiaopeng Xiea, Guangchi Liangb, Xiangyong Yunb, Haining Panb
a

School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
b
Shenzhen Institute of Special Equipment Inspection and Test,Shenzhen 518029, China

Abstract
A dynamic model for load-lifting system of the crane was established in this paper, with which a high precision direct
precise integration method was proposed for calculating the dynamic loads of the system. The dynamic
characteristics of the general crane which used the traditional step speed regulation and advanced crane which used
the variable frequency speed control technique were discussed. Calculating results show that the advanced have much
smaller dynamic loads than the general in the same case. This method, with the advantages of high accuracy and
taking less computing time, is simple and effective to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the crane system.

2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Society for
Automobile, Power and Energy Engineering Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords: dynamic load; crane; precise integration method; modeling

1. Introduction
Analysis of dynamic characteristics in lifting process for the crane is important. It is very helpful for
the safety design of the crane. The methods at present used for calculating the dynamic loads of a crane
when it carrying loads are not very convenient and accurate enough [1-3]. The precise time step
integration method proposed by Zhong [4] and improved by many researchers [5,6] can solve the
differential equation with a very high precision that almost reaching the full precision in computer, so it
was applied in the range of kinetic analysis and optimized control in engineering popularly, such as bridge,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-86-18998492503; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .

E-mail address: phjyzhl@163.com.

1877-7058 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.08.1128

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Hanjun Pu et al. / Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 586 593

vehicle, etc. In this paper, we tried to use the precise time step integration method to calculate the
dynamic loads in the load-lifting system of the crane. The load-lifting dynamic characteristics of the
general crane with step speed regulation and the advanced crane with variable frequency speed control
system were calculated and discussed. Calculating results show that the lifting dynamic loads in advanced
crane were much smaller that the general when carrying loads with the same hoisting speed.
2. Dynamic Model
2.1. Lifting model of crane system
In order to analyze the dynamic characteristics in the load-lifting system of a crane, a dynamic model
of cranes lifting system with three degrees was created, shown as Fig. 1. Where m0 was the converted
mass from the hoisting mechanism to the reel, m1 the converted mass of the supporting structure, m2 the
mass of hook, m3 the mass of goods, k1 the rigidity of the supporting structure, k2 the rigidity of the steel
wire rope, k3 the rigidity of the rigging, and x1, x2, x3 were the dynamic displacements of the supporting
structure, hook and goods respectively. Since m0 was much lager than the sum of m1, m2 and m3 in a crane,
it can be ignored when considering the calculating model which connects the supporting structure and the
pulley blocks in series.
k1
a.v(t)

m1
x1

m0
v(t)
k2

x2

m2

k3

x3

m3

Fig. 1. Model of load-lifting system of the crane

2.2. Kinetic equation

Defined the displacements where the goods was suspending in the air statically as the systems origin
state. From this model, it was true that the kinetic equation of the lifting-system was described as (1).

Mx

+ Kx = F (t )

(1)

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Where the displacement vector was x=[x1, x2, x3]T, the mass matrix of system was M , the rigidity
matrix was K , and the force matrix was F (t ) . Given the lifting speed of hoisting mechanism was v (t ) ,
according to the Lagrange approach , it can deduced as follow:

k1 +k2 k2 k3 k3
m1 0 0

M = 0 m2 0 
K = k2 k2 + k3 k3
0
0 0 m3
k3
k3
F (t ) = [ k2 k2 0] . v(t ) dt

t

(2)

After that the kinetic equation (1) was solved accurately, the tensile force Fs in the steel wire rope of
the crane lifting system can be calculated by (3).
t

Fs = k2 [ v(t )dt + x1 x2 ] + (m2 + m3 ) g

0

(3)

3. Solve the Model

3.1. Change kinetic equation to differential equation
The dynamic loads in the lifting system of the crane when carrying goods can be obtained by the
solution of (1). Firstly, given speed vector , , as follow.

dx1 / dt =
, dx2 / dt =  , dx3 / dt = 

(4)

Then, the kinetic equation (1) was described as (5).

dU / dt = GU + r (t )

U (0) = U 0

(5)

Where the U =[x1, x2, x3, , , ]T is the state vector of the lifting system, U(0) =[0, 0, 0, 0, 0,0]T is the
systems original state vector , G is the system matrix which consist of 66 elements and calculated by
(6), r(t) is the inhomogeneous term of the differential equation (5), which was calculated by (7).

I
0
G = 1


-M K 0
t
0
t
r (t ) = -1 v(t )dt = B. v(t )dt = Bs (t )
0
0
M R
3.2. Solve kinetic equation for general crane

(6)

(7)

The technique called step speed regulation was often adopted in the lifting system of the general crane,
in which the lifting displacement of hoisting mechanism s(t) was computed by the following expression,
t

s (t ) = v(t )dt = v0 t

0

(8)

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Where v0 is the rating lifting speed of the hoisting mechanism, according to (8), the inhomogeneous
differential equation (5) was converted to the homogeneous form shown as (9).

dV / dt = HV

V (0) = V0

(9)

Where the new state vector of the system V equal to V = [U, 1, t]T, the original state vector V0 = [U0, 1,
t] , and the system matrix H was described as (10). Based on the theory about the differential equation,
the equation (9) was solved as (11).
T

H = 0
0

Bv0

0
0

0
0
1

(10)

V (t ) = e H .t {V0 }

(11)

Given the tl = l. (l = 0,1, 2,...) , according to (11), the solution described as the recurrence formula (12)
in the form of numerical results.

{Vl +1} = {v(tl +1 )} = e H {Vl } = T {Vl }

(12)

On the basis of the Taylor formula

exp( H / m) = I + H / m +

( H  / m) 2
( H  / m) k
+ ... +
2!
k!

(13)

Given

T0 = H ( / m) +

( H  / m) 2
( H  / m) k
+ ... +
2!
k!

(14)

As a result,

T = [exp( H / m)]m = ( I + T0 ) m

(15)

Took m = 2 , where N is an integer, the formula (15) was described as follow:

N

T = ( I + T0 ) 2 = [( I + T0 ) ( I + T0 )]2

N 1

N 1

= [ I + 2T0 + T0 T0 ]2
It was no doubt that the formula (16) corresponds to the C language program in computer shown as
(17).

(16)

T = T0 ;
for (i = 0; i < N ; i + +) T = 2T + T * T ;
T = I +T;
Firstly, calculated T0 by (14) (generally, take k=2 and N=20 [6]). Secondly, solve the transfer matrix T
by (17) circularly. Finally, compute the state vector V which contains the solution of the kinetic equation

(17)

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(1) by (12) iteratively. After solving, it was easy to obtain the tensile force Fs in the steel wire rope by
(3).
3.3. Solve kinetic equation for advanced crane
As the development of the powerful electron device, the variable frequency speed control technique
was adopted in the lifting system of the crane gradually instead of the traditional step speed regulation,
specially, in the modern advanced cranes, since its excellent performance. In order to work smoothly, the
advanced crane with the variable frequency speed control lifting system was used to employ some
acceleration curves such as the half-sine, versed-sine, triangular, trapezoidal curves, etc. to control the
hoisting mechanism during the first second time in the hoisting process. Therefore, the lifting
displacement of hoisting mechanism s(t) was computed as follow:
t

s (t ) = v(t )dt =

(18)

a (t )dt

Where the a(t) was the function of the acceleration curve. In this paper, took the versed-sine curve as
an example to tell how to solve the dynamic loads in the load-lifting system of the crane by the precise
time step integration method. The versed-sine curve was shown as (19) and Fig. 2.

0t

(19)

a(t)

a (t ) = ve [1 cos(2 t / ) ] /

t/s
/2

Fig. 2. Acceleration curve with versed-sine

Where ve was the rating lifting speed of the hoisting mechanism ,
was the acceleration time.
According to (18) and (19), the lifting displacement of hoisting mechanism s(t) was described as follow,

s (t ) =

a(t )dt =

{v [1 cos(2 t / ) ] / }dt
0

(20)

=ve t / (2) + ve cos(2 t / ) / (4 2 ) ve / (4 2 )

On the based of (7), the inhomogeneous term r(t) of (5) shown as follow,
2

r (t ) = [ve t 2 / (2 ) + ve cos(2 t / ) / (4 2 ) ve / (4 2 )]B

(21)

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Hanjun Pu et al. / Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 586 593

Given the new state vector V = [U ,1, t , t 2

cos(2 t / )

sin(2 t / )] , the equation (5) was changed into
the form of (9). Here, the new system matrix H and the original state vector V0 were described as the
following formulas.
G ve / (4 2 ) B

0
0
0
1
H =
0
0

0
0

0
0

0 ve / (2 ) B ve / (4 2 ) B 0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

2
0
0
0
0
0
0 2 /

0
0
2 /
0

(22)

V0 = [U 0 ,1, 0, 0,1, 0]T

(23)

Now, the kinetic equation of the lifting system in the advanced crane was changed into the form of the
homogeneous differential equation (9) completely, which can be solved easily by the precise integration
method that explained above amply. Based on the same measure, when the crane employed the other
acceleration curves to control the first second time when carrying goods, the kinetic equation were solved
similarly.
4. Analysis Examples
4.1. Analysis for the general crane



! $








According to the actual situation of a crane, took m1 = 6000 kg , m2 = 700 kg , m3 =10000 kg , k1

=14.7e+6 N/m, k2 =8.216e+005 N/m, k3 =1.2324e+7 N/m, when took v0 =0.5 m/s, the calculating results
shown as the Fig. 3-6.






Fig. 3. Displacement curve of goods when v0 = 0.5 m/s; Fig. 4. Velocity curve of goods when v0 = 0.5 m/s





 
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Hanjun Pu et al. / Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 586 593

 



592





#






Fig. 5. Acceleration curve of goods when v0 = 0.5 m/s; Fig.6. Tensile force of steel wire rope when v0 = 0.5 m/s

4.2. Analysis for the advanced crane





! $








When the advanced crane took the versed-sine as the acceleration curve, took =4s, ve = 0.5 m/s, and
other parameters the same as the general crane, the calculating results shown as the Fig. 7-10.








Fig. 7. Displacement curve of goods when =4s,

ve = 0.5 m/s; Fig. 8. Velocity curve of goods when =4s, ve = 0.5 m/s






Fig. 9. Acceleration curve of when =4s,







 







#







ve = 0.5 m/s; Fig. 10. Tensile force of steel wire rope when =4s, ve = 0.5 m/s

4.3. Discussion of calculating results

From the Fig. 3 and 7, it is clear that the displacement curve of goods was linear with the time
approximately in the system of the general crane with some shaking, but was a parabola during the first

Hanjun Pu et al. / Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 586 593

seconds time that from 0 s to s and a beeline after s in the system of the advanced crane which
adopted the variable frequency speed control technique.
The figure 4 shown that the velocity of goods was the form of the sine whose center was the lifting
speed v0 in the general crane system, while it was very smooth in the advanced, without any shaking
shown as Fig. 8.
Mostly, the acceleration curve of goods and the tensile force of steel wire rope were also the form of
sine in the system of the general crane, while similar with the acceleration curve that used in the lifting
system to reduce the dynamic loads during the lifting process in the advanced system. From the figure 5,
6, 9 and 10, it shown that the maximal values of the acceleration and the tensile force of the steel wire
rope in the general crane system were 0.46089 g and 150.5009 KN respectively, while 0.02605 g and
107.591 KN in the system of the advanced. It is clear that the advanced system with the variable
frequency speed control technique have much smaller dynamic loads than the general which used the
traditional step speed regulation technique.
5. conclusion
The dynamic characteristics in the load-lifting system of the general crane and the advanced were
calculated by the high precision time step precise integration method. It is clear that this method, with the
advantage of high accuracy, facility and taking small time, is effective to analyze the dynamic
characteristics of the crane system.

Acknowledgements
Thanks for the sponsor AQSIQ science and technology projects (2008QK275 ) in China.

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