Improving Multi-Crane Operations in Congested Urban Areas via Simulation of Overlapping Areas
Publication: Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
ABSTRACT
Over the past years, the construction industry has been significantly impacted by the growing demand for efficient delivery of high-rise buildings in urban areas. Due to the magnitude of these projects and the multitude of crane-demanded tasks involved, the use of multiple tower cranes in such projects is common. However, the high congestion levels and logistic constraints in urban areas often encounter overlapping areas between tower cranes. Therefore, the planning of crane operations that considers overlapping areas is essential; however, past research has not explored this aspect sufficiently. This study aims to address this problem by investigating the influence of the number and size of overlapping areas on project completion time. To achieve this, we developed a simulation model to generate and simulate various scenarios associated with multi-crane operations with respect to the mentioned parameters. The study adopts a recently developed agent-based method for crane operations that minimizes the constraints imposed by overlapping areas (e.g., collision-related delays) and maximizes the benefits of these areas (e.g., accelerating material delivery to high-demand areas). Finally, the study simulates the construction of an actual high-rise project to evaluate various cases for positioning overlapping areas and explores the most time-saving strategy.
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REFERENCES
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
Pages: 275 - 282
History
Published online: Jan 25, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Buildings
- Construction engineering
- Construction equipment
- Construction industry
- Construction management
- Cranes
- Engineering fundamentals
- Equipment and machinery
- Freight transportation
- High-rise buildings
- Infrastructure
- Logistics
- Project management
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Transportation engineering
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
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