Barge Crane - Design Specifications

[ARS97]

Like the title suggests - design specifications for barge cranes........where do I begin?

Here's a little background. We had a customer call in a few days ago who talked to the engineering manager (who isn't an engineer, he's a typical PM with zero engineering background) about possibly helping with a modification to one of their barge cranes. I guess some discussion took place in regards to some calculations, perhaps for buoyancy and stability. The PM of course said "sure, that's easy", and then, after the phone call, proceeded to ask me what that involved. I stated that buoyancy calcs and stability analysis is not something I'm familar with at all, and I'm pretty certain that it's much more complicated than displaced water weight equally the weight of the barge.....lol.

Now, I don't have any details at the moment on the size of the barge, capacity of the crane, etc. Apparently this guy is coming into our office in a few hours to show us what he's talking about. If this is as complex as I think it is, I have no other choice than to say no thanks. However, just for curiosity sakes, are there any common design specifications for such a thing?

Anybody up for a quick reply? Thanks

 

[charliealphabravo]

I wish I could help. Our office manager told me he accepted some work designing barges for tailing ponds. I'm not sure where I will start if the job goes active I sat next to a naval architecture candidate when I took my PE exam. I'm trying to remember a conversation we had about how he got into that line of engineering.

 

[kylesito]

I did this type of work a few years ago when I worked for a large contractor and we used an in-house company standard for the design calculations. You need info about the barge obviously which we had readily available because they were our barges. Unfortunately though, when I left the company I lost the standard. It never referenced a legitimate code but was from a handbook the company had developed over it's long history.

It's not as difficult as you might think though but I do remember it being a little more involved then a bouyancy calc for a footing, for instance. Probably the same in theory but how it's applied gets a little more complex.

Maybe the modification is only on the superstructure. Anything more 'naval' related and I would enlist the help of a naval or marine architect since this sounds somewhat outside of your area of competence.

PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[ARS97]

Just got out of the meeting. Basically, they want to extend a 100' barge an additional 70' as well as extend the dredge arm. The good news is the original designer, DredgeMasters, is handling the bulk of the calculations. Sounds good to me!

 

[JStephen]

I noticed in the latest Structural magazine, they had an article about a notable barge crane- "Left Coast Lifter", design work by Liftech Consultants.

 

[TLHS]

I've found that it's worthwhile to retain a naval architect to do the heavy lifting on the stability and buoyancy math.

 

[ARS97]

Yes, if there's any heavy duty stability or buoyancy calculations involved, I will be defering to someone with that kind of experience. I typically deal with industrial buildings that support belt conveyors.......this is a completely different topic.