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1. INTRODUCTION
In designing cranes, rails, runway girders and the supporting structure, the most important parameters are the
maximum and most frequently occurring weights to be lifted, the speed and acceleration and the free height below
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the crane. The maximum wheel loads are determined by the net capacity of the crane together with the dead weight
of the crane and dynamic effects.
Handling facilities in simple portal frame buildings are often provided by light overhead travelling cranes carried
on crane runway girders supported on brackets secured to the columns, see Figure 1a.
The maximum capacity of cranes supported in this manner is about 100kN. Above this capacity, it is better to
provide a separate leg or to increase the depth of the column below the crane runway girder to give adequate
support.
When an overhead travelling crane is introduced into a building, special care must be taken to ensure that the
building is adequately braced in both directions. It is also worth mentioning that, where heavy cranes are involved,
the crane runway girders may be subjected to severe fatigue conditions.
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A very important aspect is the need for adjustment. It is impossible to erect building frames to the tolerance
required by the crane manufacturer and it is therefore essential that the whole crane runway girder can be adjusted
up to 10mm with respect to the building columns. Therefore, slotted holes and shims are required, as shown in
Figure 2.
Free rotation at the supports of crane runway girders is important in order to prevent bending and torsional
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Rotation at the end of a simply supported girder results in a longitudinal movement of the top flange in relation to
the centre line. The member which connects the top flange to the building column must therefore be capable of
allowing free longitudinal movement without becoming overstressed. A simple flexible plate may be satisfactory
when the movements are less than 1mm, but a connection with slotted holes is a safer solution in most cases (see
detail B, Figure 2).
Another vital aspect is that the distance between the two columns of a portal frame at the height of the rail changes
with the loading. The change in distance between two load cases can easily amount to 1/180 of the column-height.
The wheel flange clearances must therefore be much larger than immediately expected (often 50 mm or more are
recommended).
Longitudinal bracing of the building and crane runway girders can be arranged in several different ways:
vertical bracing used as building and as crane runway girder bracing.
vertical bracing bays with direct connection to the brackets and positioned in the plane of the crane runway
girder (for heavy cranes).
vertical bracing in the planes of both crane runway girder and building columns (for very heavy cranes only).
If the last method is used, there must be an effective restraint to the crane brackets to prevent torsion in the column.
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The ideal place for the braced bay is half-way between the expansion joints in the crane runway girder, or in the
middle of the building, see Figure 5. This arrangement prevents the build up of axial compressive forces due to
temperature rise, which could cause buckling of the crane runway girders. Furthermore, it forces the expansion in
two directions, and thereby minimises the total movement. Only the columns below the crane runway girder are
deformed. It is the magnitude of the secondary stresses associated with this deformation which limits the distance
between the expansion joints. The maximum allowable distance between the expansion joints depends on the
horizontal longitudinal displacement capacity of the columns bearing the crane runway girder - see Figure 5.
A method of transferring the axial forces in a simply-supported girder directly across the joint at the support is
shown in Figure 2.3. The detail also shows an effective method of supporting the girders by using load bearing
stiffeners. Attention has to be paid to the local eccentricity of the bearing stiffener with regard to the web of the
bracket.
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2. TYPE OF CRANES
The most common types of cranes running on elevated runway girders are:
Top running bridge cranes consisting of a single or a double girder spanning between the end carriages
(Figure 6a).
Underslung bridge crane with special end carriages where the wheels are running on the bottom flange of the
runway girders (Figure 6b).
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To ensure economical design of cranes, they are normally divided into several classes depending on the frequency
of their use, the average ratio of the loads lifted to the safe load, and the dynamic effects experienced in service. In
this way it is possible to assess the fatigue risk to the crane and its runway girder during its design life.
Classification is based on two factors:
Frequency of use.
State of loading (ratio of magnitude of actual or assumed load to the safe working load).
Selection of values for frequency of use and state of loading determines the final classification of a crane.
3. CRANE RAILS
The crane rail and its interaction with the top flange of the girder has a very strong influence on the performance of
the crane. It is, therefore, important to know what type of crane is going to be applied when designing the crane rail
and runway girder. Loading characteristics should be adopted which are in accordance with the crane which will
probably be installed. These characteristics can be obtained from manufacturers manuals. In practice it is
sometimes impossible to prepare the design of the crane and the crane runway girder at the same time because the
crane is ordered much later than the building structure. The result may be a poor design leading to problems such as
excessive wear of the crane rail and crane wheel flanges or fatigue cracking in the upper web of the girder.
The crane rail must meet the requirements for protecting the top flange from wear and for distributing the wheel
loads evenly over the greatest possible length of contact. The crane rail must therefore have:
an adequate wear resistance.
a high flexural rigidity.
Two types of crane rail are shown in Figure 2:
block rail.
specially rolled rail section.
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Welding has the advantage that the rail can be accurately located on the girder centreline due to the fact that lateral
adjustment is possible. However the use of welding gives problems in some cases. For example:
Renewal may be difficult.
In simply-supported joints crane runway girders occur at each support if shop welded.
Site welding is necessary if continuous crane runway girders are used. This problem is solved if site welding
is located at positions where the bending moments are minimal, in which case the stress situation in the welds
is less critical.
The welds can induce fatigue cracks.
When higher strength steel has been specified, the welding operation is more difficult.
Modern practice tends towards a fastening which gives partial restraint, as shown in Figure 8c. The rail is restrained
in the vertical and lateral direction, but the clamps allow the rail to move in the longitudinal direction.
Figure 9 shows a very economical method, for heavy duty applications, of obtaining lateral restraint by site welding
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'steering' plates between the clamps instead of using high strength bolts in the clamps to eliminate the possibility of
movement. This type of fixing has to be checked for its influence on the fatigue of the crane runway girder.
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These dynamic effects can be approximated by multiplying the static wheel loads with an appropriate factor which
may range from 1,0 to 2,0.
Oblique travelling of the crane can also induce lateral loads, as shown in Figure 11. The forces on the rail are acting
in opposite directions on each wheel of the end carriage and depend on the ratio of crane span to wheel base.
The longitudinal forces due to crane acceleration and braking should be verified by calculations, when data on
masses of the moving parts and their accelerations are known.
The end stops placed on the crane runway girder must be designed to take the crane buffer force. The buffer force is
calculated from the kinetic energy of the mass of the crane, but without the lifted load due to the fact that it is
suspended from the ropes. Another approach is to use electronic devices to stop the cranes at the ends, yielding a
more beneficial loading situation for the structure supporting the crane runway girder.
Other loads that need to be considered are:
Catwalks and ladders attached to the girder.
Power supply cabling and cable trays.
For more quantitative information on loads to be taken into account in designing a crane runway girder, national
codes or crane manufacturer's documentation should be referred to.
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Wheel load should be distributed over a length equal to twice the rail depth.
The stresses in the web should be calculated with an assumption for the eccentricity of the wheel with respect
to the centre of the web, which might occur at the supports or when the crane and/or the rail have seriously
suffered wear. Eccentricity of the rail to the runway girder usually has to be prevented by connecting them
together with very small tolerances (preferably shop welding).
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Welds connecting the flange to the web should be checked for a combination of vertical stresses and bending
stresses due to eccentricity (of the wheel load) in addition to shear.
To avoid the necessity to move the rail from its location above the web, alignment of the whole crane runway
girder should be possible. Therefore, slotted holes and shims are applied, see Figure 2.
If welded crane runway girders are used, a full penetration butt weld should be used for the top flange to web
joint to give resistance to fatigue.
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Single web plate girders are suitable for the majority of heavier cranes. Their insufficient resistance to lateral forces
is normally solved by introducing horizontal bracing, as shown in Figure 12d.
Plate box girders are popular for the crane itself but are seldom used for the crane girder. The rail must be situated
directly over the inner web of the box girder, so that transverse flexural stresses in the top flange plate are avoided,
as shown in Figure 12e.
High strength steel is seldom used in crane runway girders because fatigue considerations limit the permissible
stresses quite severely and thus reduce the economical advantages (the fatigue strengths of mild and high strength
steel for welded structures are the same). Additionally, deflection and lateral-torsional buckling considerations also
prevent the designer from gaining advantage from using high strength steel.
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Another effect caused by this bad detail is shown in Figure 15. The vertical deflection of the crane girder rotates its
ends on the column seat. If the connection is not designed for that purpose the result is high shear on the upper
fasteners, and local tension in the web, which could lead to failure in that area of the web.
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A continuous girder offers a possible solution to the rotation problem when a flexible detail as in Figure 3 is
chosen.
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at the mid-point.
The method of attaching the stiffeners to the web and the flanges must be detailed carefully to prevent fatigue
failure. Fatigue in the tensile flange can be averted by providing a gap of 4t between the end of the stiffener and the
bottom flange, as shown in Figure 16. However there will still be a possibility of fatigue in the web at the
termination of the stiffener.
However, the detail shown in Figure 17 is normally considered to be the best solution. The stiffener should be
welded to the compression flange so that relative movement of the flange in relation to the web due to lateral forces
is totally prevented. The stiffener should be coped a maximum of 200 mm.
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7. CONCLUDING SUMMARY
Crane runway girders require a special care in design and detailing. They should be regarded as a mechanical item.
The uncertainties, especially regarding the transverse loads and the transfer of forces to the girders, have to be
clearly recognised. In the following some guidance in obtaining the proper design is given:
Simplified calculations are adequate for light load cranes, but more rigorous analyses are required for heavy
load cranes. The depth of structural investigations can be decided from the class of the crane.
Although minimum weight design may provide an economical solution to many design problems, this is not
the case in the design of crane runway girders where the overall costs must include the maintenance costs.
Attention must be made to detailing which may reduce the fatigue life of the crane runway girder. This
consideration applies especially to the top region of the girder.
Welded fabrication should be given a more rigorous inspection than the rest of the building structure.
No further welding attachments should be allowed during the lifetime of an intensively used crane girder.
8. ADDITIONAL READING
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1.
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