Investigation of seismic behavior of container crane structures by shake table tests and mathematical modeling

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the verification of mathematical modeling of the container cranes under earthquake loadings with shake table test results. Comparison of the shake table tests with the theoretical studies has an important role in the estimation of the seismic behavior of the engineering structures. For this purpose, a new shake table and mathematical model were developed. Firstly, a new physical model is directly fixed on the shake table and the seismic response of the container crane model against the past earthquake ground motion was measured. Secondly, a four degrees-of-freedom mathematical model is developed to understand the dynamic behaviour of cranes under the seismic loadings. The results of the verification study indicate that the developed mathematical model reasonably represents the dynamic behaviour of the crane structure both in time and frequency domains. The mathematical model can be used in active-passive vibration control studies to decrease structural vibrations on container cranes.