Abstract: Taking a certain tower crane as the research object,and using finite element software ANSYS to analyze its static strength and stiffness,the result shows that the static strength and stiffness meet the design requirements.Using the nonlinear finite element method,considering material nonlinearity and structure geometrical nonlinearity,comparative analysis was done between different connection form of tower body.The result shows that the connection form has little effect on static strength and stiffness of tower crane,the maximum deviation was less than 5%.With the increase of tower height,the effect of structure geometrical nonlinearity will increase for horizontal static displacement of tower crane.At maximum independent height,the calculated deviation between linear solution and nonlinear solution close to 20%.Therefore,it can be concluded that the calculation considering structure geometrical nonlinearity will more accurate when analyze tower crane’s static stiffness.

Key words: tower crane, nonlinear, horizontal displacement, semi-rigid connection