565 14 th International Research/Expert Conference ”Trends in the Development of Machinery and Associated Technology” TMT 2010, Mediterranean Cruise, 11-18 September 2010 MAIN GIRDER BEAM DESIGN AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF 2X160 TON GANTRY CRANE Ismail Gerdemeli ITU Faculty of Mech. Eng., Mech.Eng.Department Gümüşsuyu, 34437 Istanbul, Turkey, Serpil Kurt ITU Faculty of Mech. Eng., Mech.Eng.Department Gümüşsuyu, 34437 Istanbul, Turkey, Hasan Onur Alkan ITU Faculty of Mech. Eng., Mech.Eng.Department Gümüşsuyu, 34437 Istanbul, Turkey, ABSTRACT Today in the world, Turkey has a great role in ship building industry. Shipyards work continuously and build a ship in almost every three months. In order to achieve this, a lot of cranes in different tonages are needed to lift and move the ship parts. Crane Projects are designed in need of the shipyards. While designing the crane geometry, hoisting load, the lifting height and the situation of the area where the crane will work should be considered. First of all, the main characteristics as the height of the crane, the distance between the rails, the lifting height, speed of the crane and speed of the trolley are determined. After that, the geometry of all parts, and the features of the power and transmission components are specified. The construction geometry is analyzed by Abaqus Software program. First, three dimensional geometry of the crane is built with a CAD program, then this geometry is modelled by using finite elment method. The crane is tested under the effects of its self weight, the weight of the load, the hook and the trolley, and also the wind load and the dynamic loads occuring with the movement of the crane. The obtained stress values should not exceed the safety stress of the material used. If any component has an unpermitable stress value, the thickness of the sheets should be increased or suitable supports should be added. Keywords: Gantry Crane, Strength Equations, Stress Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION A gantry crane is a type of crane with a hoist in a trolley which runs horizontally along gantry rails, usually fitted underneath a beam spanning between uprights which have wheels so that the whole crane can move at right angles to the direction of the gantry rails. These cranes come in all sizes, and some can carry and move very heavy loads, particularly the extremely large examples are used in shipyards or industrial installations. In this study, a gantry crane with a hoisting capacity of 2x160 ton is modelled in 3D using Solidworks computer software. Then, the cross section of gantry crane parts are checked by accomplishing the strength equations due to FEM, DIN norms. Considerable research studies have been carried out about structural and equivalent stresses in order to provide safety under static loading and dynamic behavior of cranes. Finite element analysis is a powerful technique originally developed for numerical solution of complex problems in structural mechanics, and it remains as a method of choice for complex systems.[1] The basic principal of this numerical method is dividing all the large structure into small elements having simple shapes. The unknown variables of an element are the displacement values for each nodal point.