Proceedings of the 2002 Winter Simulation Conference

E. Ycesan, C.-H. Chen, J. L. Snowdon, and J. M. Charnes, eds.

SPECIAL PURPOSE SIMULATION MODELING OF TOWER CRANES

Bradford J.A. Appleton

John Patra

Yasser Mohamed
Simaan AbouRizk

PCL Construction Management Inc.

Building No. 4, 5400 - 99 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T6E 3N7

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

220 Civil and Electrical Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, T6G 2G7, CANADA

mat native to the domain itself. By using SPS tools to create an industry specific modeling environment, computer
simulation provides many advantages for the industry practitioner including wider acceptance and use in practical settings (AbouRizk, 1998). Traditional simulation models
use relationship logic links to drive process interaction
for a specific construction domain. Using relationship
logic links to represent tower crane process interaction results in highly complex simulation models, that are difficult to understand by the end user. To fix this problem the
SPS tower crane template uses priority rating logic control for model process interaction. Tower crane process interaction consists of a set of activities that need to be completed by the specified tower crane resource, given a
certain time frame and urgency. Priority rating logic control means each lift activity has a scheduled arrival time
and a set priority based on activity criticality in relation to
the other existing activities in the system.
In conjunction with PCL Constructors Inc., a case study
is used to illustrate how the SPS tower crane template is
used to model a tower crane production cycle at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility (ECERF)
at the University of Alberta. PCL is the on-site project manager who owns and operates the tower crane. Using the
ECERF project, two models are developed using Simphonys common and SPS tower crane templates, which
represents the use of relationship logic links and priority
rating logic, respectively. The benefits of using the priority
rating logic control for the SPS tower crane template will be
discussed based on the results of the case study.

ABSTRACT
Historically, simulation tools have only been used and understood by the academic community. Special Purpose
Simulation (SPS) techniques have introduced computer
modeling to the industry, resulting in reduced model development time and a user-friendly environment. This paper describes the special purpose simulation template,
which is based on the tower crane operations performed by
PCL Constructors Inc. On-site management of the tower
crane resource is based on prioritized work tasks that need
to be performed within a set period of time. Traditional
SPS modeling techniques use relationship logic links to
represent the logic contained in the modeled system. As the
number of work tasks increases for the tower crane resource, the model complexity using traditional simulation
techniques becomes unmanageable, resulting in limited acceptance by industry practitioners. The tower crane template uses priority rating logic to replace the relationship
logic links. Evaluation of the tower crane operations at the
Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility
(ECERF), being constructed in Edmonton, is used to illustrate the advantages of using the priority rating logic
modeling approach for tower crane operations. The simulation model analyzes the ECERF tower crane production
cycle yielding outputs for total duration, crane utilization,
and lift activity hook-time analysis.
1

INTRODUCTION

This paper introduces a Special Purpose Simulation (SPS)

tool developed using Simphony (Hajjar and AbouRizk,
1999) to model tower crane operations. SPS is defined as
a computer-based environment built to enable a practitioner who is knowledgeable in a given domain, but not necessarily in simulation, to model a project within that domain in a manner where symbolic representation,
navigation schemes within the environment, creation of
model specifications and reporting are completed in a for-

PRIORITY RATING LOGIC CONTROL

A practitioner, who understands the criticality of each

work task in relation to the project schedule, needs to have
a SPS template that will allow the same logic. Traditional
object-oriented modeling techniques use relationship logic
links or arrows to represent the navigation scheme used
for a model framework. For construction domains that

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Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

week period (i.e. one tower crane production cycle). For
the purposes of this case study, the computer simulation
will model a one-week period representing the production
cycle for the tower crane.

have a repetitive sequence of activities, logic represented

by relationship logic links has been very successful (i.e.
earthmoving, tunneling, etc.). For tower crane operations,
each activity occurring in the modeled system does not follow a distinct repetitive process flow, but rather consists of
a number of distinct activities that move linearly through
the crane model. Each of tower crane activities is performed based on urgency and demand within the modeled
system. As the number of lifting activities increases for the
tower crane, the model complexity using traditional relationship logic links becomes unmanageable resulting in
limited implementation by industry practitioners. The proposed SPS tower crane template will use priority rating
logic control to resolve this problem. This means that for
each lift selected; the tower crane will choose the lifting
activity with the highest priority that is currently available
in the model. Using priority rating logic control verses
traditional relationship logic links simplifies the tower
crane model domain. The benefit of using priority rating
logic control is as follows:
1.
2.
3.

Table 1: ECERF Building Tower Crane Production Cycle

Monday

Tuesday

Rebar Delivery (34, 7:30am, 1-2 hrs.,

1 lift, 25-40 min.,
4) [From SrcEast]

Wednesday

Rebar Delivery (12, 9:00am, 1.5-3

hrs., 1 lift, 25-40
min., 4) [From
SrcEast]

Thursday

*** Pour Slabs No Crane Activity

***

Thursday

*** Pour Slabs No Crane Activity

***

Establishes a modeling environment that is easy to

create and manipulate by a novice practitioner,
Reduces development time for new tower crane
construction models,
Prevents the tower crane models from escalating
in complexity as the number of lifting activities
increase.

CASE STUDY: ELECTRICAL

AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
RESEARCH FACILITY (ECERF)

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility

(ECERF) is a seven-storey building constructed on the University of Alberta campus scheduled for completion in August 2001. The ECERF building is the first phase of a twophase project. The building will house offices for professors
and graduate students, classrooms, and state of the art research laboratories. There is one crane located east of the
ECERF structure. PCL is the contractor in charge of site supervision and concrete formwork construction for the erection of the sub/superstructure for the ECERF building. For
the modeled time period, the primary tower crane activity on
site is concrete formwork, using a slab fly-form system. The
only secondary sub-trade on site is the rebar contractor.
The construction of each floor for the ECERF building
is done in two stages. Each stage takes two weeks to complete, yielding a tower crane production cycle of one week.
Therefore, for any given week the crane will be working
on week one of stage 1 and week two of stage 2, or visa
versa. Stages one and two occupy approximately half of
the floor layout (typical floors 2-7). Table 1 describes the
tower crane activities for each stage occurring over a one-

Stage 1 - Week One

(South)
(21 m elevation)
Rebar Delivery (45, 7:30am, 45-80
min., 1 lift, 25-40
min., 4) [From
SrcEast]

Friday

Stage 2 - Week Two

(North)
(21 m elevation)
Set Rebar in Column
Forms (18-22, 7:30am,
0, 1 lift, 4-5 min., 3)
[From SrcWest]
Pour Column Forms (2
trucks, 12:30pm, 40-50
min., 4 buckets, 9-12
min., 3) [SrcSouth]
Fly Core Forms (7-8
pcs, 2:30pm, 6-7 min., 1
lift, 10-12 min., 3)
[From SrcNorthEast]
Rebar to Cores (4,
7:30am, 20, 1 lift, 2535min., 3) [From
SrcEast]
Close Core Forms (7-8
pcs., 1:30pm, 0.0, 1 lift,
10-12 min., 2) [From
SrcNorthEast]
Strip Column Forms
(18-22, 2:30pm, 3-4
min., 1 lift, 3-4 min., 2)
[To NorthWest Corner]
Pour Core (4-5 trucks,
8:30am, 15-20 min., 4-5
buckets, 4.5-7 min., 3)
[From SrcSouth]
Fly Slab Forms (28?
forms, 12:30pm, 8-9
min., 1 lift, Tri [9, 14,
21]min., 2) [Floor to
Floor]
Strip Core Formwork
(14-16 pcs., 11:00am,
4.5-5.5 min., 1 lift, 4-5
min., 3) [To NorthEastCorner]
Strip Core Formwork
(14-16 pcs., 11:00am,
4.5-5.5 min., 1 lift, 4-5
min., 3) [To NorthEastCorner]

Fly Column Forms

(18-22, 7:30-8:30
am, 8-12 min., 1
lift, 6-12 min., 3)
[From SrcNorthWest]
Work Package Description (No. of WorkPackages, Time of
First WP, Time between WP, No. Lifts per WP, Duration of
Lift, Priority) [From/To]

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Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

Figure 1 illustrates the east face view of the ECERF
building at the completion of the concrete superstructure.
Figure 2 views the west face of the ECERF structure while
the concrete slab is curing for stage two of the fifth floor.
Figure 3 shows the slab fly forms as they are being released from the slab. Placement, preparation and removal
of slab fly forms are the primary activities occurring during
the tower crane production cycle. Using the jacking device,
as shown in figure 4, the legs of the fly-form are unloaded
and lowered from the underside of the slab. The legs of the
slab fly-form are then raised and rollers are placed to
transport the fly form to the edge of the building for tower
crane access.
4

Figure 3: Slab Fly Forms Used For ECERF Building

Floor Construction

ECERF SIMULATION MODEL USING

SIMPHONY COMMON TEMPLATE

The Simphony common template is a general-purpose

simulation tool that enables the practitioner to model a system using process interaction concepts. Model development using the common template requires the user to have
background in simulation techniques. The template includes elements for handling hierarchical modeling, entity

Figure 4: Portable Jack Used for Slab Fly Form Transport

creation and routing, resources, statistics, activities, and
tracing. (NSERC, 2000) The common template is used to
model the ECERF tower crane production cycle using relationship logic links to represent the process interaction
between modeling elements.
The major activities occurring on the project are separated into categories; rebar deliveries, slab work, pour
slabs, column work, core work and miscellaneous work.
Computer simulation using the common template is a powerful tool for advanced users, providing flexible constructs
that can be easily manipulated to represent virtually any
construction process. The drawback of using the common
template for simulating tower crane operations is the complex relationships that result from having a multiple number of lifting activities that are not driven by process
events. But rather, driven by priority ratings between activities and controlled by entity arrival times. That is to say
that once a work package is selected by the crane resource
it is unaffected by any other work packages or entities that
are present in the model. The only prerequisite for tower
crane selection is that the specified work package has arrived at the specified source location and that it is the highest ranked work package waiting in the model.

Figure 1: East View of Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility (ECERF)

Figure 2: ECERF Building Concrete Slab Construction

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Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

3.

The Simphony common template model shown in

Figure 5, illustrates the level of complexity required to
model the ECERF project using relationship logic links.
Some of the drawbacks experienced during the development of the common template ECERF tower crane model
are outlined as follows:
1.

2.
3.
4.

4.
5.

The development phase of the model is time consuming, requiring excessive relationship links and
coding by the user.
The model will change dramatically when applied
to a new project.
A novice simulation user cannot easily modify the
model.
The model is difficult to track and understand.

As the results will demonstrate, the SPS tower crane

template produces results similar to the common template
approach, thus demonstrating the viability of replacing relationship logic links used by the common template with priority rating logic control for modeling process interaction.

As discussed earlier, many construction operation systems can be broken down to a set of repetitive activities
that drive production. Using the relationship logic links
approach demonstrated by the Simphony common template
is very successful in modeling these systems. However, using the common template to model tower crane operations
is laborious and impractical for the industry practitioner.
5

The creation of a computer simulation model using the

SPS tower crane template is based on the geographical locations of the crane, source, and destination elements on
the model layout (i.e. footprint). Figure 6 shows the element locations in relation to the ECERF building layout
and the staged construction zones used for each floor. Including the 10-meter buffer zone in the x and y direction,
the precise location of each modeling element is found in
Table 2. Inside the source elements (child level), work
packages have been created for each tower crane activity
represented in Table 1. Data used for unhook and hookup
delays were gathered in the field and expert opinion received from the ECERF project coordinator.
Once all the information was gathered regarding the
tower crane production system for the ECERF project, setting up the SPS tower crane model was simple and straightforward. The following inferences were made while developing ECERF model using the SPS tower crane template:

2.

RESULTS

Each of the simulation model described above is run for 50

iterations to simulate the various conditions reflected by the
input parameters. Table 3 shows the results for the total
number of crane hours and crane utilization for the common
and SPS tower crane template ECERF models, respectively.
Due to greater flexibility in the SPS tower crane model,
dynamic quantities for columns, core forms, and rebar deliveries have been entered for the work package input parameters, whereas the common template model only uses static
quantities. This explains why the results show a tighter standard deviation for the common template results.
The duration for each lift used in the common template
model includes hookup, unhook and crane movement delays, whereas the SPS tower crane model requires the practitioner to input the hookup and unhook delays as the crane
movement is calculated separately in the model. Much of the
lift delay information received from the ECERF project coordinator, included hookup, unhook and movement delays.
In order to separate these delay times, hook-time analysis is
performed using the SPS tower crane template to isolate the
crane movement delay between the source and destination
elements for each specified lift activity (i.e. hookup/unhook
delays excluded). Using these results, the hookup/unhook
delay for the SPS template is extracted from the original
data. Although this provides an accurate estimate for the unhook/hookup times for the SPS template, it results in a slight
variation in the total number crane hours and crane utilization when comparing two ECERF models. The percent difference found in the total number of crane hours and tower
crane utilization is 1.7 and 1.0, respectively.
Overall, the results show that the common and SPS
tower crane models have comparable crane selection
schemes and outputs, demonstrating that using priority
rating logic control can accurately model tower crane operations while still maintaining traditional modeling logic
constraints.

ECERF SIMULATION MODEL

USING SIMPHONY SPS TOWER
CRANE TEMPLATE

1.

Using priority rating logic, the development

phase of the tower crane template is simple and
efficient. Priority rating logic uses work package
priority ratings and arrival times to control logic
in the modeled system.
Model is very flexible, which encourages scenario
analysis by the practitioner.
By isolating the user from the low level constructs
and presenting a model interface that more closely
represents the actual tower crane system, the
overall environment is simple to understand.

Parameters needed for each work package is representative of the tower crane construction domain, which results in a transference of knowledge that is effortless for site personal.
Creating Site footprint is a useful tool that helps
the practitioner envision the actual construction
layout. Required information drawn directly from
site drawings.

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Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

Figure 5: ECERF Common Template Simphony Model

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Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

Figure 6: ECERF Building Floor Footprint and Model Elements (Typical Floors 2-7)
Table 2: ECERF Modeling Element Coordinates

Table 3: ECERF Case Study - Model Verification Results

Locations
X[m]
Y[m]
SrcNorthWest
10.00
10.00
SrcWest
14.50
50.50
SrcNorthEast
94.00
4.00
SrcAtrium
66.44
59.50
SrcSouth
46.00
83.50
SrcEast
94.00
59.50
DestStageNorth
28.00
23.50
DestStageSouth
33.50
59.50
DestNorthEast
104.00
10.00
DestNorthWest
8.00
6.00
SrcStageN
52.00
23.50
SrcStageS
52.00
59.50
CraneLocation
58.65
43.19
Note: North and West boundaries have a 10m buffer zone

Number of runs
Mean
Total number
Std. Dev.
of crane hrs
Min.
Max.
Crane
Mean
utilization
Std. Dev.
Total number of crane hrs
difference
Crane utilization difference

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Simphony Template
Description
General purpose SPS-Tower
- Common TemCrane
plate
Template
50
50
35.5
36.1
0.2
0.35
35.1
35.4
35.78
36.81
89.2
90.1
0.95
1.97
1.6620%
0.9989%

Appleton, Patra, Mohamed, and AbouRizk

7

Simulation Tools. Proceedings of the 1999 Winter

Simulation Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 998-1006.
NSERC. 2000. Simphony: General Purpose Simulation
Template Users Guide. NSERC/Alberta Construction
Industry Research Chair, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

CONCLUSION

This paper validates the theory that priority rating logic is

a viable replacement for the relationship logic links used
by traditional object-oriented simulation techniques. The
ECERF Building, located on the University of Alberta
campus has been modeled using the Simphony common
template and SPS template, respectively. The ECERF case
study used to illustrate the merit of using priority rating
logic control for simulating tower crane operations.
Each simulation models is run for 50 iterations to
simulate the various conditions represented by the input
parameters. The total number of crane hours and crane
utilization for both models is approximately 36 hours and
90%, respectfully. When comparing the two methods, the
percent error for the common and SPS tower crane models
was found to be less than 1.7%. Refer to Table 3 for a detailed summary of the model results.
Modeling tower crane operations using the SPS tower
crane template provides the following benefits:
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
BRAD APPLETON is a project coordinator for PCL
Constructors Inc. He received B.Sc in Civil Engineering
and a MSc. in Construction Engineering and Management
at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on the
development of simulation techniques that accurately represent tower crane management. His e-mail address is:
<[email protected]>.
JOHN PATRA is the Chief Engineer for PCL
Constructors Inc. He has over 20 years experience in the
construction field. He is an in-house specialist for all PCL
owned tower cranes.

Parameters needed for each work package is representative of the tower crane construction domain, which results in a transference of knowledge that is effortless for site personnel.
Creating Site footprint is a useful tool that helps
the practitioner envision the actual construction
layout. Required information drawn directly from
site drawings.
Using priority rating logic, the development
phase of the tower crane template is simple and
efficient. Priority rating logic uses work package
priority ratings and arrival times to control logic
in the modeled system.
The model is very flexible, which encourages
scenario analysis by the practitioner.
By isolating the user from the low level constructs
and presenting a model interface that more closely
represents the actual tower crane system, the
overall environment is simple to understand.

YASSER MOHAMED is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Civil Engineering at the University of Alberta.
He received his BSCE and MSCE in Civil Engineering
form Zagazig University, Egypt, in 1990 and 1996. His research interests are focused on decision support of construction management using simulation techniques. His email address is <[email protected]>.
SIMAAN ABOURIZK is a professor in the Department of
Civil Engineering at the University of Alberta. He received
his BSCE and MSCE in Civil Engineering from Georgia
Institute of Technology in 1984 and 1985, respectively. He
received his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University in 1990.
His research interests focus on the application of computer
methods and simulation techniques to the management of
construction projects. His e-mail address is <abourizk
@civil.ualberta.ca>.

The results verify that the two ECERF case study

models have comparable crane selection schemes and outputs, demonstrating that using priority rating logic control can accurately model tower crane operations while still
maintaining traditional modeling logic constraints.
REFERENCES
AbouRizk, S.M. 1998. Simulation and Modeling, Proceedings of the 5th Annual Canadian Construction Research Forum.
Hajjar, D. and S. AbouRizk. 1999. Simphony: An Environment for Building Special Purpose Construction

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