05.02: Influence of rails on the stability of crane runway girders

• Published in: ce/papers Vol. 1; no. 2-3; pp. 1029 - 1038
• Main Authors: Kraus, Matthias, Mämpel, Silvio, Crisan, Andrei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-09-2017
• Subjects: Crane runway girder; finite elements; lateral torsional buckling; torsional rigidity
• ISSN: 2509-7075; 2509-7075
• DOI: 10.1002/cepa.143

ABSTRACT
Due to the stressing of crane runway girders, they are usually susceptible to lateral torsional buckling. In this paper, the contribution of crane rails to bending stiffness, torsional rigidity and load bearing capacity of crane runway girders is presented. The torsional and warping stiffness of the combined cross section is being determined by numerical approaches, i.e. two‐dimensional isoparametric finite elements for cross sections. The influence of the increased stiffness and cross sectional capacity is then considered for stability verifications based on an application of equivalent initial geometric imperfections. The corresponding non‐linear member analyses are performed using finite beam elements with seven degrees of freedom. In addition, the influence of the rails on the stress states of the total cross sections is evaluated and presented.