Publications / 2011 Proceedings of the 28th ISARC, Seoul, Korea

Development of Ultra Lightweight Hoist Rope of Tower Crane for Super Skyscraper

Sang Heon Lee, Song Soo Han, Samyong Chung
Pages 869-874 (2011 Proceedings of the 28th ISARC, Seoul, Korea, ISBN 978-89-954572-4-5, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai, UAE, is the tallest man-made structure in the world. Its height reaches 828m but the taller super skyscrapers over 1 km have already been proposed. Tower crane is the key member for building such skyscrapers, which hoists heavy materials from the ground to the top of the construction site. The higher the building rises up, the longer hoist rope is needed and the weight of the rope gives burdens to the tower crane. The steel hoist rope, which was used for Burj Khalifa, weighs 6.32 kg/m and the total weight exceeds 5 tons when the crane climbs up to 800m. The crane has to lift not only the construction materials but also the hanging heavy rope. Therefore, the lighter and stronger hoist rope could provide a breakthrough in hoisting operation in super skyscrapers. A research on a novel hoist rope is on the way utilizing Dyneema, one of the UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) fibers. They are the toughest fibers ever made and have usually been used in armor or mooring rope because of its lightweight, soft, and UV resistant property. Replacement of the steel rope with high strength fiber rope made of UHMWPE will reduce the weight of the hoist rope to about one-eighth, thus the load capacity of the tower crane could be drastically increased. This paper describes the design of the fiber hoist rope and the results of some performance tests.

Keywords: Super Skyscraper, Tower Crane, Load Ccapacity, Fiber Hoist rope, UHMWPE