Increasing Crane Girder Capacity Using the Strut-and-Tie Method

Over recent decades, vessel size and the weight of the heaviest marine containers have increased, resulting in increased crane reactions to the wharves. Many existing wharves cannot carry the heavier crane loads and continue to meet the original design criteria. New wharves may be excessively expensive. This paper presents a new analysis, including the strut-and-tie method, for determining the acceptable crane loads on the crane girders for many cases. This method increases the calculated ultimate capacity of crane girders.