STUDY OF RESIDUAL LIFE PREDICTION AND

MAINTENANCE DECISION-MAKING OF PORTAL CRANE

CHEN Yan1, SUN Yuantao2
1 School of Logistics Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan,P.R.China, 430063
2 College of Mechanical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai,P.R.China, 200439
E-mail:chenyan@whut.edu.cn, sun1979@sina.com
Fax: +86-027-86551180

Keywords: portal crane, condition-based maintenance, crack, A portal crane is one of the main equipments for cargo-
residual life, inspection cycle handling work, with short, repeat and cycle features, in bad
work surroundings. The metal structure supports the crane,
Abstract with some fault potentials, which may eliminate functions of
the crane, with huge harm to enterprise and persons if the jib
As a main equipment of port production, a portal crane is is broken. Up to now, the life of portal cranes of the ports
usually repaired according to the status for reducing loss by expires or is nearly expired. The components are damaged to
halting it, and for safe and normal production of port some extent. And, some jib or supporting cylinder is broken,
enterprises. This paper studies the defect categories of it, threatening safe production[6]. Thus, it is necessary to apply
based on metal structure fault detection, to understand the fault management on the metal structures of cranes. This
actual status of a portal crane, as a basis for making paper makes statistics and analysis on the distribution of
maintenance decisions. A method for safe assessment of crane defects, main reasons and rules, etc., to assist the
structure is made via the monitor of stress value of the fault confirmation on maintenance time and cycle.
areas, with the statistic analysis and the Paris model. The
crack sensitive areas and stress values are confirmed with the 2 Analysis of Portal Crane Fault Distribution
finite element analysis and test method, predicting the
residual life of cracked structural members of a portal crane, Currently, the use duration of portal cranes of China ports is
and confirming reasonable maintenance time and inspection relatively long. Some are used in prolonged duration. An
cycle. This paper also shows a case study of engineering investigation[1] showed that there were notable defects if a
practice, justifying that it can provide port enterprises with the portal crane worked for about 10 years, incl. cracks,
efficient and long term technical guarantee in both theory and deformation, breaking and rust, with crack as the most
practice, for safe use of the structural members, reducing popular defect, taking 80% of the metal structure defects. The
notably economic loss caused by halting production. test report of 77 portal cranes checked by Wuhan Port
Machinery Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing
1 Introduction Center during 2003~2006 [4](see Table 1) showed that the
crack probability of cranes used for 15-20 years was 66.53 %.
In production of enterprises, mechanical maintenance is a And, the one used more than 20 years was 88.89%. The crack
must link. In general, mechanical maintenance includes probability was listed No. 1 among all the defects. With the
breakdown maintenance, periodical maintenance and increase of time, the probability was increased as well.
condition-based maintenance. And, the condition-based
maintenance means to control the maintenance time Use Crack Rust Deformation
according to the actual technical status, with the monitor and Duration Occurrence Occurrence Occurrence
fault diagnosis technology as tools. The special checks can Rate Rate Rate
also be applied with various data of modern monitor 15~20 Year 65.63% 40.63% 18.75%
equipment, and manual or special instruments and tools per
>20 Year 88.89% 66.67% 55.56%
specific requirements. The condition-based maintenance can
be used with the machine running or stopped. It can be
applied continuously or by intervals, for timely monitoring Table 1 Main Defect Probability of Portal Crane
the equipment operation, understanding abnormal items and
degeneration laws, forecasting and judging fault positions, For the huge size of portal cranes, it is difficult to find out
arranging reasonably maintenance, for normal operation of small cracks. So, the technicians have to judge sensitive areas
equipment, to avoid any loss caused by sudden mechanical of cracks (where cracks exist easily) by experiences.
breakdown[2]. The statistics of crack location and times creates crack
occurrence probability, as shown by Table 2, which shows
that there are cracks at main components of legs, slewing g Section II is of a stable fatigue expansion stage. The crack
platform, slewing post, jib, A-bracket, weight balance beam, propagation is shown with the Paris rule. At this section,
etc., mainly at locations of sectional or sharp changes of the micro material structure, average stress of fatigue
structure. For instance, the connection parts of upper slewing load and environmental factors do not affect the crack
support ring and legs, and flange plate of slewing platform, propagation speed so much.
etc. The actual tests showed that the stress values of these g Section III is of a stage that the cracks expand to break
parts were larger, which needed more monitor. fast. When the maximum stress intensity factor value is at
the fracture toughness K IC , the fatigue crack makes the
Crack Location Crack Occurrence
structural member broken.[5]
Probability
Connection Parts of Upper
29.41%
Slewing Support Ring and Legs
Flange Plate of Slewing Platform 21.57%
Connection Part of Slewing
11.7%
Platform and Slewing Post
Jib Flange Plate 5.8%
Cross Section of Jib 3.9%
Bottom of A-bracket 13.73%
Weight Balance Beam 11.76%

Table 2 Crack Location and Occurrence Probability of

10T Portal Crane

3 Residual Life Prediction and Maintenance

Decision-making of Portal Crane

3.1 Crack Propagation Model

In general, the cracks do not affect the crane functions, but
with potential danger. The fracture mechanics thinks that the Figure 1 General Relations between Stress Intensity
cracks at critical limit have damaging possibility. The current Factor Values and Fatigue Crack Propagation Ratio
crack propagation model was set up by Paris and Erdogan.
The basic form[7] is as follows.
3.2 Residual Life Prediction and Confirmation of
da Inspection Cycle
C ('K ) m (1)
dN
With Paris model, if the preliminary crack length is checked
as a0 , the stress change times is the crack propagation life N,
Among which:
g da/ dN is fatigue crack propagation ratio; during the period when a0 expands to critical length ac . The
g C and m are material constants got with standard fatigue theoretical formula[3] is:
specimens. For instance, the C and m of Q235, 16Mn of § ·
portal crane structure were got via tests; 2 ¨ 1 1 ¸
g ǻK K max  K min . The K max and K min are the max-
N m ¨ ( m 1)  ( m 1) ¸ (2)
m m ¨ ¸
c(m  2)1.12 S V max © a0
2 2
ac 2
¹
imum and minimum stress factors in a load cycle.
This model is often regarded as Paris rule, which is a
experience relation based on linear elastic fracture mechanics, Among which:
being approved by many researchers. Figure 1 shows results g c, m are material constants got with tests;
of the tests, showing the relations between stress intensity K IC2
factor values and fatigue crack propagation ratio. There are g ac (3)
S y 2 (V max  V min ) 2
three sections on Figure 1:
2
g There is a threshold value 'K h at Section I. When the and, K IC is fatigue fracture toughness of materials;
stress intensity factor value is larger than this value, y is a correction coefficient, y  [1, 1.12] ;
cracks propagate further. At this section, the micro V max is the largest main stress value at cracks.
material structure, average stress of fatigue load and
V min can take an approximation V min 0 for the
environmental factors affect the crack propagation speed
a lot. portal crane metal structure.
Formula (2) shows that the bigger the stress is, the faster the was a M1633 portal crane used around 20 years at Shanghai
crack propagation speed becomes, which justifies the results Port, with a 15mm crack at both sides of the A-bracket (see
at Table 2. With monitoring of stress at key parts, the relevant Figure 3) , symmetrically, which caused highly attention of
inspection at dangerous areas are enhanced, increasing the the company. With the dynamic and static stress tester, the
check efficiency and decreasing the costs. actual stress value there was 70.66Mpa. The stress value there
Currently, there are two methods of structure stress analysis, should be 66.8Mpa, being calculated by finite element
incl. finite element analysis and test. method. Its average lifting times per day was 400 times. The
1) Finite Element Method (The method is of the number stress values confirmed by test and finite element analysis
calculation of mechanics analysis, regarding a continuous were processed separately via the computer software. The
medium as a aggregate of finite elements. It is assumed that both results showed that the residual life of the crack was at
there is some idealized displacement and stress distribution least 3 years and the inspection cycle should be once 2-3
mode at each element connected with nodes. The structure months (see Figure 4). This showed that the results of the two
stress values can be got with a balance condition and linear methods are the same.
equations.). The finite element analysis of structural members
is made by using the ANSYS software, and then the stress
nephogram can be got. The crack sensitive areas and stress
values can be confirmed with the tress nephogram. Figure 2
shows that the structure is of the A-bracket of M02 crane,
with AǃB as sensitive areas.

Crack

Figure 3 Cracks at A-bracket with Strain Gauge

Figure 2 Stress Confirmed with Stress Nephogram

2) Test Method. The actual stress value of inspection areas is

confirmed with a dynamic and static stress tester (a hardware
system).
With the stress values at the crack parts, the crack
propagation life N can be got with Formula (2), which is the
interval time when cracks expand to critical value and break.
Divide crack propagation life N with a safety coefficient n,
the inspection cycle T is got (See Formula (4)). Thus, the
inspection can be arranged with this cycle to raise the
efficiency.
N
T (4)
n

4 Case Study Figure 4 System Interface of Crack Diagnosis

The check system has be used at more than ten ports, incl. For the long safe use period predicted, the company
Guangzhou Port, Shanghai Port, etc., with ideal results. There monitored the stress with a hardware system, without any
production loss by halting the crane, creating economic Hoisting and Conveying Machinery, 01, pp.25-29,
benefits for the company actually. (1994).
[7] Zhao Zhangyan. Study on Method of Crack Diagnosing,
5 Conclusion Controlling and Maintaining and Its Application for
Mechanical Load-carrying Structures[D]. Wuhan:
The status of the metal structure can be checked successfully Wuhan University of Technology, pp.62, (2001).
with the safety assessment of it, having guaranteed the safety
of the machine with technical support of the monitor,
reducing economic loss and improveing economic benefits.
With the development of science and technology, some issues
have to be studied further as follows.
1) With fracture mechanics development, the applicable
engineering formula has to be corrected further for predicting
crack propagation life of portal crane metal structure, making
it more accurate.
2) The stress nephogram was got in the most dangerous
conditions, with the finite element method for the portal crane
metal structure, not so accurate with the actual conditions.
Thus, the stress values made by testers are more objective to
show actual work status. The functions of the fault diagnosis
system becomes more improved if the values made by testers
can be applied in it, so that, enterprises using the system can
control better the stress of the cranes in operation.
Certainly, besides the theoretical study, enterprises should
have more theoretical training courses for their technical staff
using the diagnosis system, with the development of their
check capabilities, for better promotion and application of the
technologies of the diagnosis system.

Acknowledgements
The open research projects is supported by the project fund of
The Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Transmission and Manufacturing Engineering Wuhan
University of Science and Technology (2007A22), grateful
thanks to the help.

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