Topological Optimization Design of the Gantry Steel Beam of the Simplified Freight Ropeway

Abstract Simplified freight ropeway are mostly built on high mountains and ridges inaccessible by roads, where the gantry of the ropeway needs to be handled manually. The traditional gantry with a single-piece weight of 63.9kg is hard to be handled manually. Based on the existing gantry structure, the single-piece lightest combined gantry construction is analyzed, and finite element analysis is conducted in this paper. After analyzing and calculating the steel beam of the combined gantry, it is determined that the weight of a single steel pipe and that of the steel bushing are 17.7kg and 30.5kg, respectively, which can meet the requirement in manual handling operation in steep terrain. On the premise of considering the cost and weight of the gantry, the H-shaped steel of different materials is determined to be selected for strength and stiffness analysis, and the H-shaped steel beam of Q345 material of 200mm×100mm×5.5mm×8mm is selected as the gantry for topology optimization design and finite element topology iterative calculation in this paper. The stress is distributed uniformly after optimization, and the mass of the steel beam of the H-shaped gantry is reduced from 63.9kg to 49.1kg, which meets the maximum single-lift load of 50kg for an adult man specified in GB12330-90 “the Limit on Carrying-load for Physical Work”.