Nowadays, container shipment in the intermodal terminals is overloaded. The quay crane and its control system have to be properly prepared for rapid cargo reloading. The advanced control system may increase container loading efficiency due to the reduced transportation time. However, faster transportation demands higher safety. In this article, the authors performed multibody dynamics simulation of the container spreader and lifting mechanism by analyzing more advanced mathematical model of the quay crane. Trolley motion and cargo swing angle transient responses of the dynamic system were acquired and analyzed during model simulation. The main target of this research is to determine the system behavior during transients. The simulation results showed that the transients induced by startup of the vertical spreader travel affect the whole crane system in all the investigated cases. In addition, the influence of flexible cable causes additional oscillations of cargo and reciprocating trolley displacement. The simulation of the container spreader and lifting mechanism will help detect motion deviations of the quay crane in real time. KeywordsMultibody dynamics, transients, simulation, mathematical modeling, quay crane General introduction Risk of cargo transportation process and impact of crane restrictionsEvery year, container shipment is increasing and the container terminals get loaded more. Because of this situation, the terminals must load more containers using the same transportation equipment. One of the most important aspects of cargo loading is operation safety which can decrease in overloaded terminals. [1][2][3] In order to ensure safety of the container during transportation, an optimal operational strategy 4,5 of a quay crane control has to be ensured. In addition, the restrictions and limitations of the intermodal quay crane have to be appropriately assessed performing numerical simulations of multibody dynamics and the transient processes.One of the most researched cargo damage reasons in the past years is container swinging. 2,6,7 The main cause of the container and spreader swinging is the flexible steel cable connection between the spreader and trolley of the quay crane. 8 The container can produce swinging motion because of different container weights, wind gusts, and human actions. As a result, more time is required for the container shipment from point A to

Due to the mechanical nature of container handling operations, as well as natural factors, container and handling infrastructure suffers various types of damage during use, especially within the tight and enclosed environments of a ship’s hull. In this operational environment, it is critical to detect any sort of physical impacts between the vertical cell guides of the ship’s hull and the container. Currently, an inspection of impacts and evaluation of any consequences is performed manually, via visual inspection processes. This process is time-consuming and relies on the technical expertise of the personnel involved. In this paper, we propose a five-step impact-detection methodology (IDM), intended to detect only the most significant impact events based on acceleration data. We conducted real measurements in a container terminal using a sensory device placed on the spreader of the quay crane. The proposed solution identified an average of 12.8 container impacts with the vertical cell guides during common handling operations. In addition, the results indicate that the presented IDM can be used to recognize repeated impacts in the same space of each bay of the ship, and can be used as a decision support tool for predictive maintenance systems.

The transportation of cargo inside shipping containers is a risky operation that requires constant monitoring activities and real-time operational actions. Yet, the detection of the real dynamics of the container and the surrounding infrastructure and extraction of true subsequent critical events is still an unresolved issue among engineers. In this paper, we analyze the new physical impact detection method, namely the Impact Detection Methodology (IDM), to detect the most obvious and force-dependent impacts from acceleration data, using the IoT sensor in an experimental environment using the heavy machinery of a seaport. By variating the threshold level, we have observed the changes in the number of impacts detected within three separate case studies. Results suggest that the optimal parameters tend to provide an adequate number of events, yet even the slightest change in the threshold level can increase or decrease the number of detected impacts in a non-linear fashion, making the detection harder, due to unforeseen external impacts on the dataset, the filtering of which is still the main priority of our future research.

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