Design and Development of Overhead Monorail

Structure for Material Handling

Shashi Sagar1, Ronak R Patel 2, Shashank P Joshi3
1
Assistant professor,SOCET, Ahmedabad , Gujarat,India
2
Assistant professor, 3Associate professor, Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya, Anand,
Gujarat, India

Abstract—Overhead Monorail crane structure is generally condition and design criterion are similar to that for any
used to handle medium and large sized object in structural application.
manufacturing or processing industry. The major challenges in The present work is an attempt to design an overhead
design of overhead monorail structures are, design of curved monorail crane structure for lifting and transporting the
runway beam and the effect of moving loads. Even though,
maximum load of 6 ton through the given path as shown in
every structure is designed on the criterion of strength and
rigidity, the loading characteristics of application make every fig. 1 at a speed of 1m/min for shot blasting purpose. The
design unique. In the present paper, design approach for an design must comply the appropriate standards, at the same
overhead monorail structure to transport 6 ton on straight and time the design must ensure the strength and rigidity and must
curved path is discussed. The design is required for material withstand the application specific design criteria.
handling in shot blasting. The aim is to build a basic approach
based on structural strength and rigidity using appropriate
standards i.e. CMAA 74 and IS standard with all the possible
loading conditions like trolley loads, loading due to movement
of trolley.
Bottom flange bending, local capacity check, fatigue check and
deflection check is carried out for monorail runway beam
design and determining span length. The design of straight and
curved runway beam is done with simply supported conditions
to avoid failure of entire system. Additional lateral loads and
axial loads due to motion of trolley are considered. Bending
stress due to both in-plane and on-plane bending moment
along with torsion are estimated for interaction ratio of
monorail beam. For curved monorail runway beam, the
torsional effect, warping effect and lateral torsional buckling is
taken in consider since it affects the strength and rigidity of
curved beam significantly. The validation of design calculation
is done by software STAAD Pro V8i. This paper presents
complete approach of monorail beam design procedure
including its supporting structures.

Keywords— Monorail structure, Curved runway

beam, STAAD Pro, Bottom flange bending, CMAA 74,
Warping stress

Fig 1. Schematic diagram of monorail system

I. INTRODUCTION
Overhead monorail cranes are used for lifting and transporting
objects to the destination point or station for intended
application e.g. shot blasting and return from the station to the
unloading point. Each overhead monorail crane is designed
and. manufactured according to these requirements i.e. the
load, path of travel, number of trolleys, space availability,
speed of trolley and frequency etc. Hence, every monorail
crane design is a customized design; however general loading
The design specifications for monorail crane runway beam are
according to CMAA 74: Specifications for top running and
under running single girder electric overhead crane under
running trolley hoists. The design of structural support must
follow IS 800: Code for general construction in steel.
II. DESIGN APPROACH
For designing, following steps has been followed:
• Classification of monorail system according to CMAA 74.
• Selection of trolley based on maximum load to be conveyed.

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• Design of runway beam
a) Selection of standard I beam for runway beam from
IS 808 suitable to trolley wheel.
b) Compute the different loads like self-weight of beam,
trolley load and wheel load with load factors
according to CMAA 74. The lateral load factor and
axial load factor is selected from IS 875 part 2.
c) Design of monorail runway beam for maximum
design loads and lateral loads.
d) Find the appropriate support positions (span length)
for runway beam.
• Design of supporting structure
a) Compute the maximum hanger load (MHL) for
designing the supporting beam.
b) Design the supporting beam and column.
• Develop the layout for monorail system.
III. RUNWAY BEAM DESIGN
In order to determine the rated capacity, the capacity of
monorail section is first calculated using three different
criteria, each of which imposes a maximum load limit, and the
minimum of the following three calculated values.
1. The maximum allowable tensile stress
2. The maximum allowable compression stress
3. The maximum allowable deflection
In practice, the actual load is usually suspended from one or
more monorail trolleys and is therefore transmitted to the
supporting monorail, at two or more points. Therefore, it is
necessary to convert the actual distributed load into an
equivalent center load, ECL [1].
A. Determination of Equivalent center load
The first step in determining the ECL is to calculate the total
design load, P imposed on monorail by the loaded trolley.
Total design load is determined with load factors according to
CMAA74 .Calculation of ECL is grouped into three
categories.
a) Equal wheel loading , Four wheel Trolley
b) Equal wheel loading , Eight wheel Trolley
c) Unequal wheel loading, general solution
Here, first two conditions are discussed.
Case a: Equal wheel loading, Four wheels Trolley
Fig 2. Maximum bending moments with four wheel trolley
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In fig. 2 the four wheel trolley is shown in the position that
will produce the maximum bending moment in the runway
beam.
P = Maximum design load
L= Rail span between supports
A = wheel base of trolley
To determine the ECL, the design load P is multiplied by the
coefficient C, so that
…….(1)
In which C = coefficient due to load distribution.
When the wheelbase is relatively short with respect to the
span, i.e. a ≤ L/4, then the approximate value of C may be
calculated by the use of a very simple equation. Although the
result is an approximation, the error is on the order of 2% or
less, and because of its simplicity the following equation is
widely used within the monorail industry[1].
……(2)
When greater accuracy is necessary, or desired, then the exact
value of C may be determined by the following:
…….(3)
The above equation applies for all values of „a’ up to and
including a = 0.586 L. For values of a greater than 0.586 L, C
= 0.50.
Case b: Equal wheel loading, Eight wheels Trolley:
In fig. 3 the eight wheel trolley is shown in the position that
will produce the bending moment in runway beam.
Fig 3. Maximum bending moment with eight wheel trolley
P = maximum design load (equally distributed)
L = rail span between supports
a = principal wheel base of trolley
t = wheel base of auxiliary four wheel trolleys
As in case 1, C may be calculated by use of,
When a ≤ L/4, and t ≤ a/4. After which
This takes into account the fact that when t ≤ a/4, the influence
of the spread of auxiliary trolley wheels is minimal, and for
ease of calculation each pair of auxiliary trolley loads, may be
assumed to be acting at a single point.
However, when t ≥ a/4, or where greater accuracy is required,
the exact value of C may be determined by the equation:
.(4)
When a is greater than 0.586 L, the auxiliary four wheel
trolley is next positioned as to produce the maximum bending
moment in the span being analyzed, as in case 1 and the
calculation may then proceed in the same manner as in the
case of a four wheel trolley.
B. Calculation of Hanger Loads
After having determined the ECL, a rail of the proper depth
and weight may be selected to suit the span and specified
deflection limits. It then becomes necessary to calculate the
maximum hanger loads will, in turn, provide the loading data
necessary for designing or checking the design of, the
overhead supporting structure.
The term Maximum Hanger Load (MHL) is defined as the
maximum reaction occurring at the hanger being analyzed due
to the maximum live load P imposed by the trolley or end
truck, plus the weight of runway beam.
Fig 4: Maximum hanger load, eight - wheel trolley
In order to determine the MHL, the trolley is first centered
under the hanger being analyzed (H2) as shown in fig. 4. The
load at hanger H2, or the MHL, may be determined by the use
of simple equation:
MHL= KP + rail weight ……..(5)
Where: P= total design load
K= distribution factor
……..(6)
The factor K is applicable to either four wheel or eight wheel
trolleys so long as all of the stipulated conditions have been
met [1].
C. Support Conditions
The two ends of the runway beam are assumed to be simply
supported, in the sense that the flexural displacements and
twisting rotation of the beam are restrained at the supports.
Consider two cases of support,
1. Single span is designed considering simply supported.
2. Simply supported continuous beam
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Comparative bending moment diagram under both cases
shown in fig. 5,
In second case for design, if one span failed by some reason it
may cause failure of full system. So we prefer to design by
considering the single span as simply supported to avoid the
collapse of structure.
Fig 5. Comparative bending moment diagram
IV. SUMMARY OF DESIGN CALCULATIONS
 The desired overhead monorail system is classified as
Class B according to CMAA 74 [4].
 Two trolleys with four wheels each are selected with
capacity of 3 ton from the company catalogue.
 ISMB beam is selected for runway beam in accordance
with trolley
 Loads are calculated with different load factors [4,6]
summarized below:
Self-weight of runway beam (W): 402.5 N/m
Maximum load of each trolley on runway beam, Ptrolley=
34856.103 N
Axial load, Paxial = 1742.80 N (Axial load factor = 0.05)
Lateral load, Plateral = 3485.60 N (Lateral load factor = 0.1)
Wheel load, Pwheel = 8714.026 N
A. Results of Straight Runway Beam
Straight runway beam is checked for stresses, deflection and
local bending of bottom flange according to CMAA 74. The
summary of results is shown in table 1.
B. Results of Curved Runway Beam
While designing the support positions for curved runway
beam, we have to consider both torsional and bending effect.
The torsional effect causes additional bending stress and
warping stress.so, the effect of torsional moment is considered
by evaluating the value of warping stress and minor axis
bending stress due to torsion. To find the angle of curvature
for curved beam is trial and error process. The curved beam is
analyzed for 45˚, 36˚ and 30˚.
The vertical load is same as calculated in case of design of
straight runway beam. The centrifugal force is added to the
lateral load.
Centrifugal force = 0.28 N
Total lateral load = Plat + 0.28 = 3485.88 N The supporting structure is designed with three column
The summary of results is shown in table 2. support and results are analyzed with help of STAAD Pro and
checked with IS 800The modeled frame of supporting
TABLE 1 SUMMARY OF STRAIGHT RUNWAY BEAM DESIGN structure is shown in fig. 7 .
Beam ISMB 250
Span Length 3 meter
Permissible Tensile stress 150 MPa
Permissible Compressive stress 165 MPa
Major Axis 61.85MPa
Actual bending stress (T)
Minor Axis 62.25 MPa
At point
At point 0 At point 1
Local bending stress of bottom 2
flange (C) 145.57 162.77 82.2
MPa MPa MPa
Support reactions (MHL) 41.65 kN Fig 7. Modelled frame of supporting structure
Deflection 1.94 mm < (L/450)
Interaction Ratio 0.833 < 1 The results from STAAD Pro is summarized below:

TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF CURVED RUNWAY BEAM DESIGN

Beam ISMB 250

Angle of Curvature 30˚
Span length 1.57 meter
Major
16.005MPa
Axis
Actual bending stress (T)
Minor
26.174 MPa
Axis
Warping stress 81.753 <150 MPa V. CONCLUSIONS
Bending stress due to
11.74 MPa  From the calculated results, it is concluded that
torsion
Shear stress 66.5 MPa < 93.33 MPa tapered flange is better than parallel flange in case of
Interaction ratio 0.90 < 1 designing runway beam.
At point At point At point  For curved beam design warping is having significant
Local bending stress of 0 1 2 effect so the torsional effect must be considered in
bottom flange (C) 79.01 95.8 27.28 design.
MPa MPa MPa
Deflection 0.34 mm < (L/450)

C. Results of supporting structure

The support structure is designed for withstand maximum
load.Considering three column supports for supporting beam
with 2 m clearance from runway beam and supporting beam
connection. At a moment, only one side of system is in
loading condition as shown in fig. 6.
.

Fig 8. General layout of full monorail structure

 Local bending of bottom flange because of wheel

Fig 6. Schematic diagram of supporting beam with 3 column support
load should be considered in design of runway beam.

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 For making safe our design, bottom flange bending is
checked which is iterative process. We checked for
span length 3.5 m, 3.4 m, 3.3 m, 3.2 m, 3.1 m and 3.0
m and found to be safe with 3.0 m span length.
 Deciding the support positions for curved beam is
trial and error process. So start the curved beam
design with equivalent angle of curvature of straight
runway beam and determine optimum angle of
curvature for support position.
 The developed layout of structure is shown in fig. 8

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my project
supervisor for their guidance, advices and motivation. I am
also thankful to Nesco Ltd. for providing me this opportunity.

REFERENCES
[1] Raymond a. kulweic, Material Handling Handbook, 2nd Edition John
Wiley & Sons Publication
[2] Warren C. Young, Richard G. Budynas, Roark‟s Formulas for Stress and
Strain ,Seventh Edition McGraw-Hill
[3] Tomas H Orihuela,"Design of Monorail Systems", Integrity Crane
System.
[4] Crane Manufacturers Association of America, Inc. (CMAA) Specification
No. 74, Revised 2000, Specifications for Top Running and Under Running
Single Girder Electric Overhead Cranes Utilizing Under Running Trolley
Hoists.
[5] IS 800:2007. General construction in. Steel - code of practice. (Third
revision).
[6] IS 875 part 2 Code of practice for design loads. (Second revision).
[7] IS 808 Dimensions for hot rolled steel beam, column, channel and angle
sections. (Third revision).
.

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