Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol.

467 (2014) pp 349-353 Online: 2013-12-06

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.467.349

The Force Analysis of Landing Stage and Transportation Terminal of

Large Module with SPMT Trolley
Yuexia She 1a
(Offshore oil engineering (Qingdao) co., LTD) Shandong Qingdao 266520
sheyx@mail.cooec.com.cn

Keywords: landing stage; land module; finite element; SPMT trolley

Abstract. Nickel ore project is the first main part construct project of modular and integrate large
smelter. This project includes fifteen modules and its total weight is nearly forty thousand ton and
the biggest module is five thousand ton. Use trolley to lade the nickel ore module. Use interim
landing stage and shipboard method to land the nickel ore module because of the depth of water.
Calculating the three operating modes in the lading process, design the landing stage construct.
Thereby lay the foundation to lade the module safely and smoothly.

Summarize
The project of Nickel Ore was built in the no slide area and the modules were shipped with the
method of broadside shipment with SPMT trolley. At the same time, because of the limit of the
depth of water，shipping with trolley must have the landing stage build between wharf and ship.
After building the fifteen modules in the no slide area, they are transported to the barge with SPMT
trolley successively in four batches. Calculating the three operating modes in the lading process,
design the landing stage construct. Thereby lay the foundation to lade the module safely and
smoothly.

Structural loads of SPMT trolley and modules

The structural features of SPMT trolley
The landing stage is welded together with steel plate which thickness to 10 mm and 15 mm. The
both sides of the landing stage is slope so the SPMT trolley could up and down the landing stage
convenient. The material of landing stage is Q345. We can know from the design code for steel
structures GB50017-2003 that the ultimate shearing strength of Q235 steel plate which thickness
less than 16mm is 180MPa, and their Ultimate tensile, resist compression and bending strength is
310MPa.
The structural features of modules
The module 3M131 as the heaviest of all module series is been selected to analyze the loa
ding conditions of landing stage when the SPMT trolley pass it.
Table.1 Total weight distribution of module 3M131
Module Weight 3800t
Total weight distribution of
Trolley Weight 738t
module 3M131 when lading
Other Weight 50t
with SPMT trolley
Total Weight 4588t

The module 3M131 shipment needs six column trolleys. Every column trolleys are consisted of
five group 6 shaft trolley. The total weight of module 3M131 when lading with SPMT trolley is
4751.2 tons and the weight of every shaft is 26.4 tons. It is less than the limit load of each shaft
which is 34 tons and the safety factor is 1.28. The average pressure of contact surface between

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350 Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering

landing stage and the trolley’s cartwheel is 1×106Pa. Because of the limit of landing stage length,
five shaft trolleys can driving on the landing stage at the same time at most. The load location that
the trolley acting on the landing stage is shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1 The structural parameters of SPMT trolley

The design and stress analysis of the landing stage

The characteristics and modeling of landing stage
landing stage
barge whar
f f

Fig. 2 The design diagram of landing stage

The wharf and barge are linked by landing stage. The trolley carrying the large structure is hauled
from wharf to barge. The weight of large structure is very big, so the landing stage must has the
enough strength and stiffness to ensure the trolley arrived on the barge safe. The concrete structure
of landing stage has been designed earlier. The landing stage is consisted of two slopes and two
level floors. The material of landing stage is welded together with Q345 steel plate. The
characteristic of landing stage is light, easy to dismantle and reusable
Building the finite element model of landing stage includes four steps as follows:
(1) Building the geometric model of landing stage. Considering the landing stage is welded
together with steel plate and each steel plate’s shape is irregular, so it will be very complicated to
establish the landing stage geometric model with ANSYS. This paper established landing stage’s
geometric model which is IGES format with Solidworks, and then Import it into ANSYS with
"IGESIN" command.
(2) Determining the unit types of landing stage. The finite element modeling of landing stage is
build with shell element Shell63. Shell element Shell63 is a four node elastic shell element as
shown in figure.3. Each node has six degrees of freedom, they are movement and rotation in X, Y,
Z direction. The element can bear internal and external load of shell surface at the same time and it
has shell element algorithm and membrane element algorithm. The domino offect of stress
stiffening and large deformation are been considered also.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 467 351

Fig.3 Shell63 shell element model

(3) Defining the material properties and real constant of landing stage. The Q345 steel is
selected to as the landing stage material. Its modulus of elasticity is 2.06×105MPa. Its poisson ratio
is 0.3. Its density is 7.85×10-6kg/mm3. The real constant of steel thickness of the landing stage’s
surface is X1=15mm and the real constant of reinforcing plate thickness is X2=10mm. We can
know from the design code for steel structures GB50017-2003 that GB50017-2003 the shear
strength of steel plate whose thickness less than 16 mm is 180MPa, and its compression strength is
3345MPa. If the safety factor is 1.5, the shear allowable stress and compressive allowable stress of
Q345 steel is 120MPa and 230MPa.
(4) Meshing the landing stage. Mesh the landing stage to size for 80 mm cell.
Modeling of the contact between wharf and trestle
Contact problem is a common engineering problem, action between elastic subgrade and footing
beam and foundation, gear mesh with each other in the mechanical system, action between hardness
tester and measurement specimens, are all involve contact problem analysis. When large structure
car shipping, along with the change of load size and load position, wharf and pier also exist contact
problem. In this paper, in order to accurately analyze the force between wharf and trestle, Contact
element is used in the connection between wharf and trestle.
Contact problem generally fall into two basic types: Rigid body - Soft body contact and soft
body - soft body contact. Due to the elastic modulus of trestle is 2.06 x 105 MPa, elastic modulus of
wharf is 3.15 x 104 MPa, the trestle and wharf contact can be regarded as Rigid body - Soft body
contact problem, while trestle has the larger elastic modulus looked as a Rigid body, wharf has the
smaller elastic modulus as Soft body.
Contact problem generally divided into three kinds: point - point contact, point - surface contact
and surface-to-surface contact. Surface-to-surface contact problems commonly use Targe169 and
Conta172 to define the 2D contact pair, and use Targe170 and Conta173 or Conta174 to define the
3D contact pair. Wharf and trestle contact problem can be regarded as surface-to-surface contact
problem, the establishment of surface-to-surface contact finite element model to wharf and trestle
basically has the following five steps：
(1) Establish a model and mesh
The first two sections has been established finite element model for wharf and trestle, among
them, the trestle modeling using Shell63 shell element, but Shell63 shell element cannot directly
generate contact area, so, it is necessary to create an entity of the same shell thickness in the place
of Shell63 shell element when establish contact area. This paper chooses the entity - shell element
Solsh190 to establish entity with shell thickness. Solish190 unit is applicable to establish all kinds
of thickness of the shell structure of the model. As the figure 6 shows, Solish190 unit is a kind of
three-dimensional eight node unit; each node has three degrees of freedom in the X, Y, Z direction.
As shown in figure 2-14, Solsh190 unit is used in the application to establish contact area for trestle,
Shell63 unit for the top of trestle, Solsh190 unit for the base.
352 Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering

Fig.5 Solsh190 unit geometric model

Fig.6 Trestle bottom generation entities - shell element Solsh190

In the stage when car move up the bridge, five rows of wheel in the trestle, car shipping process,
due to the high barge adjustable capacity, lead to the barge produce bigger reaction force to trestle
and have the trestle leave 5 mm from the wharf, a certain gap formed between the wharf and trestle,
trestle equivalent to a simply supported beam can rotate at both ends of it.

Fig.7 Schematic diagram for working condition car position

(a) Trestle displacement contour map

 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 467 353

(b) trestle stress contour map

Fig.8 Trestle stress strain diagram
The biggest stress of the trestle is 178.228 MPa, located in the contact point between trestle and
barge, less than the compressive allowable stress 230 MPa, maximum deformation is 5.381 mm,
located in the right edge of the trestle and meet the design requirements.

Conclusions
By the contrast analysis, we can conclude that in the condition that barge higher than wharf, the
stress of the contact part between trestle and wheel, trestle and barge is larger, the stress of the rest
part is almost zero, trestle and wharf strength can be guaranteed, car shipping operation safety can
be ensured too.

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Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.467

The Force Analysis of Landing Stage and Transportation Terminal of Large Module with SPMT
Trolley
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.467.349