Parametric Modeling of Whole Tower Crane Based on ANSYS

The conventional finite element modeling of the tower in the ANSYS GUI, in particular, the modeling of the whole tower crane which is large and complex, always gives rise to low efficiency and less authenticity. A new method of modeling of whole tower crane is presented here. This paper applies the APDL which stands for ANSYS Parametric Design Language to separately build crane’s components :the mast, the tower head, the counter-jib ,the jib and the simplified slewing platform. And then accomplishes the parametric finite element model of the whole tower by using the assembly and connection technology provided by ANSYS to assemble and connect them. Further, based on these methods and Visual Basic Programming Software, the parametric design software on tower crane has been developed. At the end of the paper, the paper takes the H25/23 tower crane as an analysis example to demonstrate that such a method is not only technically feasible, but also cost-effective. The details of the parameterized modeling and related technologies are given in the paper.