Aerial lifts are used to elevate people and material to high heights. There are many different types of aerial lifts which have vastly different dynamics characteristics. Thus, a new categorization for aerial lifts was created and organizes them by their kinematics. Many accidents occur while using aerial lifts. Hazards of aerial lifts and current solutions to those hazards were reviewed to understand the causes of the accidents. Some major accidents are due to the complex dynamics and flexibility of aerial lifts, such as oscillations and tip-overs. Oscillations of full-size aerial lifts were experimentally tested to determine frequencies in different configurations. Machine-motion induced oscillations of an articulating aerial lift were simulated and analyzed for both non-overcenter and overcenter configurations. Input shaping was used to achieve reduction in machine-motion induced oscillations. Tip-over stability margin was used to simulate and analyze the stability of both non-overcenter and overcenter configurations. The effect of increased platform mass on tip-over stability margin was also analyzed. The results in this thesis are a categorization of aerial lifts including their hazards and methods of reducing those hazards, an experimental verification of the dynamic response of full-size aerial lifts, a fully dynamic tip-over prediction model of double-boom articulating aerial lift by applying flexibility in the joints and realistic velocity profiles, and a detailed study of the dynamics of a double-boom articulating aerial lift.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/45944 |
| Date | 14 November 2012 |
| Creators | Hernandez, Eileen Cynthia |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds