Overhead crane subjected to impulse loading

Overhead cranes are machines designed to lift and transport heavy equipment and materials. For this reason, their design is regulated by rigorous standards (for example, the series EN13000 in Europe). However, the standards do not take into account the effect of cyclic loading due to, for example, rapid successions of short commands to place heavy machines and structures in a required position. Therefore, the aim of this research is to study the structural effect of rapid successions of command impulses. The preliminary results show that the displacement of the structure over time increases when the command impulses have a frequency equal or close to the natural frequency of the structure.