Crane mounted trucks

Truck-mounted cranes are designed to handle heavy loads. With this in mind, manufacturers and engineers look to optimize the machine’s payload, or carrying, capacity. Simulation apps can help expedite the optimization process by extending simulation capabilities into the hands of those who are not experts in simulation through a customized and intuitive interface. Our Truck Mounted Crane Analyzer demo app shows the benefits of this approach.

Strength Is Key

With their mechanical advantage in providing lifting power as well as mobility, truck-mounted cranes are valued in numerous industries, from construction to electrical line maintenance. When designing these machines, an important consideration is the payload capacity of the crane. In other words, how much weight is the crane able to lift when in operation? Addressing this question involves taking into account the orientation and extension of the crane as well as the capacity of the crane’s hydraulic cylinders, which control the machine’s motions.

The Truck Mounted Crane Analyzer demo app, released with COMSOL Multiphysics® software version 5.1, provides answers — all within an easy-to-use, customized format. Designers who are not experts in setting up simulations need a simplified simulation tool in order to modify the configuration of the crane and the positioning of the payload as well as the capacity of the hydraulic cylinders. By turning your models into apps, you will provide them with the easy-to-use tool that they need to run their own simulations. Let’s take a closer look at this example.

A Demo App for Analyzing Truck-Mounted Crane Designs

The truck-mounted crane demo app is based on the Truck Mounted Crane tutorial model, which we have. The crane features five hydraulic cylinders: the inner boom cylinder, the outer boom cylinder, and three extension cylinders. The inner boom cylinder is used to rotate the inner boom with respect to the base, while the outer boom cylinder is used to rotate the outer boom with respect to the inner boom. Meanwhile, the extension cylinders are designed to modify the length of the three extensions. The different components of the crane’s geometry are illustrated below.

The geometry of the crane.

When building your own app, you can adjust what parameters your app user should be able to modify. In our example case, we are creating an app for someone who wants to improve the payload capacity of the truck-mounted crane. Therefore, the demo app has been customized to allow modifications in the capacity of the hydraulic cylinders. In your app, you can include the elements that are important to your particular design scenario.