An optimal design of minimum weight of boom and box girders for container crane under static loading is presented and an automated design is developed. The structure is analysed by Finite element method. The elements of truss part are assumed to be truss element and those of box girders and rail parts are assumed to be beam element in FEM formulation. The Generalized steepest descent algorithm is employed in the mathematical programming for the optimal design. The computer program developed is capable of designing structure according to KS, JIS and DIN specifications.
A comparison is made between the weight of existing container crane and that from the optimal design, which shows that a considerable weight reduction in the crane can be achieved by the program developed here.
