LAUSR

To improve the carrying capacity and reduce the weight of telescopic boom structure in a truck crane, a Collaborative optimization (CO) approach was applied to solve the problems of strength, stiffness and local stability in the telescopic boom structure. First, the complex optimization problem of the telescopic boom structure was decomposed into two-level optimizations: the system level and two subsystem levels for strength and local stability. Second, the underside curve of the boom’s cross-section was constructed by the Non-uniform rational B-Splines (NURBS) curve. 3D parametric solid model and the parametric finite element analysis model for the strength and the local stability were then established. Third, the mathematical models of the strength and local stability for the subsystem levels, and the system level were optimized, respectively. The adaptive relaxation factor algorithm and the penalty function approach were applied to improve the efficiency of CO. Next, the CO process which integrates the ANSYS package with ISIGHT platform was implemented. The optimal results show that the carrying capacity of the telescopic boom structure can be significantly improved and its weight efficiently is reduced. Finally, with the comparison of the stress values obtained from both the experimental test and the theoretical computation, highly coincident results could be obtained to verify the reliability of CO of a telescopic boom.