International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

Free Vibration and Modal Analysis of Tower Crane Using

SAP2000 and ANSYS
Huang, Li-Jeng1, Syu, Hung-Jie2
1
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Science, 80701, Taiwan,
R.O.C.
2
Master Student, Institute of Civil Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Science, 80701, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Abstract—This paper presents finite element free vibration
and modal analysis of a typical tower crane frame using
SAP2000 and ANSYS. Three-dimensional beam elements and
bar elements are employed for vertical and horizontal frames
as well as the tie rods, respectively, to build up the numerical
model. Then numerical example is considered and the first
leading twelve fundamental frequencies and periods of the
tower crane obtained by SAP2000 and ANSYS, respectively,
are obtained. The associated modes obtained from these two
softwares are also resented and discussed. The discrepancies
between these free vibration characteristics of the first nine
modes calculated from different analysis programs are small
than 10 %, and thus can be accepted in the sense of
engineering application. There exist additional vibration
modes with high frequency predicted by different software.
Keywords—ANSYS, Free Vibration, Modal Analysis,
Tower Crane, SAP2000.
I. INTRODUCTION
Tower cranes are widely employed in civil engineering
for construction of high-rise buildings. During the period of
construction it becomes an additional structure aside of the
constructed building and thus its structural stability and
safety is of the same importance with the major target
building. In the past many preceding preliminary studies on
the static, stability and dynamic behaviors of the tower
crane for high-rise buildings have been conducted [1-10].
Some disasters related to the tower cranes occurred in the
past in Taiwan and other countries are due to different
causes: earthquake shaking-down, fracture of members,
flexural failure, etc. [11]. The disasters caused from the
tower cranes include the destruction of the construction
apparatus, people hit by the heavy falling-down
components, induced failure of subordinate structures, etc.
The special features of tower crane structures are their
relatively light weight and flexible as compared with the
major target building. When subjected to wind loading and
earthquake excitation, giant displacements and internal
stresses of the structural members might be induced and
lead to sudden failure and/or long-term fatigue.
From the points of view on structural mechanics, tower
crane frame is a integrated three-dimensional truss or frame
structure made with a lot of bar elements, to form an
integrated structures comprised with a major vertical
supporting column, a horizontal loading arm and some
tensile tendons. However, analytical structural analysis of
tower-type is difficult due to its complicated and three-
dimensional features and many trials are based on the
matrix methods of structural analysis and finite element
methods [10-12].
This paper presents numerical modeling and structural
dynamic analysis of a typical tower crane employed in
construction engineering. SAP2000 and ANSYS software
was employed, respectively, and finite element method is
adopted. A typical numerical example was considered,
totally 516 three-dimensional beam elements with 207
nodes are employed for the vertical and horizontal frame
parts and bar elements are used for tensile tendons,
respectively. Natural frequencies and vibration modes were
in detail.
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II. DYNAMICS MODEL OF A TOWER CRANE FRAME
A. Problem Description
A typical tower crane is shown in Fig. 1. It comprises
with basically three major parts: (1) a stretchable vertical
supporting column made of trusses and frames, (2) a
horizontal cantilevered loading arms made of trusses and
frames, and (3) steel tensile tendons supporting the
horizontal arms. The vertical column is with 54.9 m height
and in rectangular cross section with 1.5m x 1.5m , the
horizontal arm is with length 50m and in triangular cross-
section with width 1.5m x 1.5m.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
B. Basic Assumptions
For the structural analysis of the tower crane frame we
employed the following hypotheses: (1) all the member in
the vertical column and horizontal arms are considered to
be three-dimensional thin beams and only flexural and
stretching behaviors are included, Euler-Bernoulli
assumptions are employed (2) the tensile tendons are
considered as pure tension members, (3) all the members
are in small deformations, (4) all the stresses and strains of
the structural members are in linear elastic range and the
Hookes law applied, and (5) damping effects are negligible.
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C. Finite Element Models
In this research we employ SAP2000 to build up the
finite element model of the tower crane using the following
structural elements:
1. Vertically supporting column: three-dimensional
beam elements.
2. Horizontally loading arm: three-dimensional beam
elements.
3. Steel tensile tendons: bar elements.
After assemblage of the element mass and stiffness
matrices and loading vectors, we obtain the global
systematic matrices and vectors and then enforce the
prescribed boundary conditions (e.g. the fixed ends at the
bottom of the vertical supporting column) we can express
the equations of motion of the finite element model of the
tower crane as
M x(t )  K x(t )  f (t ) (1)
Where M and K denotes the inertia and stiffness matrix,
respectively; x (t) and x(t) denotes the acceleration vector
and displacement vector, respectively, and f(t) denotes the
external loading vector.
When free vibration is considered, f(t) = 0, and under
the assumption of sinusoidal motion, we can obtain the
eigen-value system:
( 2 M  K ) X  0 (2)
and the natural frequencies  n and vibration modes Xn,
n  1,2,  N can be obtained.
When the loading is due to earthquake ground
excitations, the equations of motion (1) can be rewritten to
be [13]
27
M x(t )  K x(t )  M a(t ) (3)
in which a(t) denotes the ground acceleration. In the
dynamic response analysis the initial conditions
x(0)  x (0)  0 are prescribed. The dynamic responses can
be solved by various numerical schemes such as Wilson-θ
method or Newmark- β method. In SAP2000 we can
choose the solution scheme by setting the dialogue window
directly.
III. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
A. Case Description
In the preliminary numerical study we consider a typical
tower crane frame with totally height of supporting column
54.9 m and length of loading arm 50m, made of the
following L-shape structural steel members with the sizes:
(1) 200 mm  200 mm  20 mm,
(2) 90 mm  90 mm  7 mm,
(3) 80 mm  80 mm  6 mm,
and the cross-sectional properties (area and moments of
inertia):
(1) A  76 cm 2 , I x  2820 cm 4 , I y  2820 cm 4 ,
(2) A  12.2 cm 2 , I x  93 cm 4 , I y  93 cm 4 ,
(3) A  9.33 cm 2 , I x  56.4 cm 4 , I y  56.4 cm 4 ,
and the ASTM992 was employed，the Young’s modulus is
E s  206 GPa ，and the density is  s  7800 kg / m 3 。
The finite element mesh using SAP2000 is summarized
as follows:
1. Vertically supporting column: 264 three-dimensional
beam elements with totally 92 nodes.
2. Horizontally loading arm: 270 three-dimensional
beam elements with totally 117 nodes.
3. Steel tensile tendons: 4 bar elements with totally 5
nodes.
The overall numerical model of a space frame structure
comprises of 207 nodes (each on e has 6 degrees of
freedom), 516 elements and is fixed at the bottom of the
vertical supporting column onto ground.
B. Free Vibration Analysis
The natural frequencies and corresponding vibration
modes of the finite element model of typical tower crane
can be obtained using SAP2000.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
The first leading 12 natural frequencies (f = ω/2π) and
natural periods (T=1/f) are summarized in Table 1. The
first leading 12 various vibration modes obtained from
SAP2000 and ANSYS are shown in Fig. 2 to Fig. 13. It can
be clearly found that the fundamental natural frequencies of
the typical tower crane are generally lower than those of
major RC buildings. The leading 12 natural frequencies
range from 0.05 Hz to 5.6 Hz. There appear a lot of
interesting different vibration mode shapes considering of
pitching, rotation and yawing of horizontal arm, vertical
column and horizontal tail (short arm) as well as some
combined modes, as shown in the figures 2 to 13 [12].
These mode shapes can be itemized following the
nomenclature employed in airplane dynamics since it is
also can be considered as a dynamic system with 6 degrees
of freedom (but tower crane is an elastic deformable
structure). Defining the rotation with respect to x-axis to
be pitching, the rotation with respect to y-axis to be rotation,
and the rotation with respect to z-axis to be yawing,
respectively, we can summarize the leading 12 natural
modes of a typical tower crane to be as follows:
(1) 1st-yawing of horizontal arm;
(2) 1st-pitching of total tower;
(3) 1st-rotating of total tower;
(4) 1st-pitching of horizontal arm;
(5) 2nd-yawing of horizontal arm;
(6) 2nd-pitching of horizontal arm;
(7) 2nd-rotating of column;
(8) 1st-pitching of column;
(9) 1st-rotating of horizontal arm;
(10) combined rotating of column and yawing of arm;
(11) 1st-pitching of tail;
(12) Combined tail-pitching and column-pulsating.
IV. CONCLUSION
The famous structural analysis software SAP2000 and
ANSYS has been successfully applied to analyze the free
vibration of a typical tower crane frame structure. Finite
element model is first built up using three-dimensional
beam elements for the vertical supporting column and the
horizontal cantilever loading arm as well as bar elements
for the tensile steel tendons.
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It is found that the fundamental natural frequencies of
the typical tower crane are generally lower than those of
major RC buildings and the leading 12 natural frequencies
range from 0.05 Hz to 6.0 Hz. Various vibration modal
shapes can be observed from these two different kinds of
structural analysis programs and compared with each other
for correctness.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to pay acknowledgements to the
partially financial support under grant of KUAS-102-SC-
001.
REFERENCES
[1] Chin, C., Nayfeh, A. H. and Abdel-Rahman, E. M. 2001. Nonlinear
Dynamics on a Boom Crane, J. Vib.Contr., 7, 199–220.
[2] Abdel-Rahman, E. M., Nayfeh, A. H. and Masoud, Z. N. 2003.
Dynamics and Control of Cranes: A Review, J. Vib. Contr., 9, 863–
908.
[3] S.C. Chu and N.L. Lu, 2003. Vibration Analysis of Loading Arms
and Level Arms of a Tower Crane, J. Transp. Mach., 2, 35 - 39.
[4] Y.W. Li, 2005. Study on the Seismic-Resistance Requirements of
Crane for Construction of High-Rise Buildings. Master Thesis,
National Taipei University of Technology.
[5] J. M. Huang, 2005. Stability of Tower crane in Construction of
High-Rise Buildings. Master Thesis, National Taipei University of
Technology.
[6] F. Ju and Y.S.Choo, 2005. Dynamic Analysis of Tower Cranes,
ASCE J. Engng. Mech., 131, 88–96.
[7] F. Ju, Y.S. Choo and F.S. Cui, 2006. Dynamic Response of Tower
Crane Induced by The Pendulum Motion of The Payload, Int. J.
Solids and Struct., 43, 376-389.
[8] I. C. Tsai, 2006. Earthquake Response Analysis of High-Rise
Building Assembled with Tower Canes and Apparatus. National
Taiwan University.
[9] C. Z. Shen, 2010. Study on the Ultimate Load Capacity of Tower
crane Structure. National Chao-Yang University of Technology.
[10] L. X Hu and Y. F. Li, 2010. Study on the Statics and Modal Shapes
of Tower Crane, Trans. Ruo-Yang Tech. College, 20, 27 - 29.
[11] L. J. Huang and H. J. Syu, 2013. Static Analysis of Tower Crane
Frame Using SAP2000, 2013 ACFA Conference, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, R.O.C., paper No. 7.
[12] L. J Huang and H. J. Syu, 2013. Free Vibration Analysis of Tower
Crane Frame Using SAP2000, 2013 ACFA Conference, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, R.O.C., paper No. 10.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
TABLE I
NATURAL FREQUENCIES AND PERIODS FOR A TYPICAL TOWER CRANE
Frequencies Frequencies Periods Periods Discrepancies
(Hz) (Hz)
(sec) (sec) (%)
SAP2000 ANSYS
SAP2000 ANSYS (SAP-ANSYS)/ANSYS *100%

Mode 1 0.0537 0.059 18.616 16.949 -10.17

Mode 2 0.1995 0.206 5.0109 4.8544 -3.40

Mode 3 0.3286 0.360 3.0423 2.7778 -8.89

Mode 4 0.5209 0.535 1.9194 1.8692 -2.80

Mode 5 1.6109 1.661 0.6207 0.602 -3.07

Mode 6 2.1326 2.194 0.4688 0.4558 -2.83

Mode 7 2.8816 2.840 0.3470 0.3521 1.44

Mode 8 3.4607 3.535 0.2889 0.2829 -2.12

Mode 9 3.6088 3.584 0.2770 0.279 0.67

Mode 10 3.8894 4.475 0.2571 0.2235 -13.09

Mode 11 4.4989 4.757 0.2222 0.2102 -5.43

- - 5.165 0.1936 ANSYS additional

Mode 12 5.6392 6.176 0.1773 0.1619 9.50

Fig. 1 Schematic of a typical tower crane frame using SAP2000 and ANSYS

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

1st mode from SAP2000 (0.0537 Hz) 1st mode from ANSYS (0.059 Hz)

Fig. 2 The first modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-yawing of horizontal arm)

2nd mode from SAP2000 (0.1995 Hz) 2nd mode from ANSYS (0.206 Hz)

Fig. 3 The second modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-pitching of total tower)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

3rd mode from SAP2000 (0.3286 Hz) 3rd mode from ANSYS (0.360 Hz)

Fig. 4 The third modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-rotaing of total tower)

4th mode from SAP2000 (0.5209 Hz) 4th mode from ANSYS (0.535 Hz)

Fig. 5 The fourth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-pitching of horizontal arm)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

5th mode from SAP2000 (1.6109 Hz) 5th mode from ANSYS (1.661 Hz)

Fig. 6 The fifth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (2nd-yawing mode of horizontal arm)

6th mode from SAP2000 (2.1326 Hz) 6th mode from ANSYS (2.194 Hz)

Fig. 7 The sixth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (2nd-pitching of horizontal arm)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

7th mode from SAP2000 (2.8816 Hz) 7th mode from ANSYS (2.840 Hz)

Fig. 8 The seventh modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (2nd-rotating of column)

8th mode from SAP2000 (3.4607 Hz) 8th mode from ANSYS (3.535 Hz)

Fig. 9 The eighth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-pitching of column)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

9th mode from SAP2000 (3.6088 Hz) 9th mode from ANSYS(3.584 Hz)

Fig. 10 The nineth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-rotating of horizontal arm)

10th mode from SAP2000 (3.8894 Hz) 10th mode from ANSYS(4.475 Hz)

Fig. 11 The tenth modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (combined rotating of column and yawing of arm)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)

11th mode from SAP2000 (4.4989 Hz) 11th mode from ANSYS(4.757 Hz)

Fig. 12 The 11th modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (1st-pitching of tail)

12th mode from SAP2000 (5.6392 Hz) 13 th mode from ANSYS(6.1759 Hz)

Fig. 13 The 12th modes obtained from SAP2000 and ANSYS (Combined tail-pitching and column-pulsating)

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