Using cranes on drilling rigs and ports of call

[mandie81]

My daughter is doing her first science fair. She is in the 4th grade and our project I believe falls under the category of Engineering. It is mandatory for her to do either a project or a research paper and it can not be a scientific model b/c that is considered a class 1 category which is only for grades k-3. I am not sure whether she should submit this as a project or a research paper and since this is my first science project I am not really sure where to begin. We decide to do a project about the use of cranes on drilling rigs and ports of call because my husband and his dad work on deep water oil rigs as crane operators and my dad works as a mechanic on cranes for the Port of New Orleans. I thought this would be a good way for her to learn about what her dad and her grandpas really do. My only problem is that I am limited on what I know so I am not sure what this project would actually be about other than the fact that they are mechanical pulley systems. I tried to do a search in the forums about cranes but had no luck but if someone can point me in the right direction that would be great or throw some ideas my way to discuss with my husband and my dad to keep us in the science category. thanks for any help

[audreyln]

I think this is a great idea because it's easily related to real-world situations!

As you mentioned, cranes are pulley systems and there are many science projects or research papers you could do to investigate how pulleys work. Here's some good starting points:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p010.shtml
http://science.howstuffworks.com/transp ... pulley.htm

Depending on the requirements of your project you could experiment on how pulleys work and which configurations work the best. You could also do research on the real-world applications of pulleys and their configurations and maybe even make a field trip!

[mandie81]

thank you for posting the science buddies link. I did see it the other day but for the life of me couldn't find it. I pulled up a few things on the cranes that they use at the Port and my husband is going to be sending photos and info that he has gathered over the past couple of days. The port uses two different types of gantry cranes and I know for a fact that one of the cranes on the rig that my husband works on is a gantry crane, I forgot to ask what kind when he called earlier so when he calls back I will. Through my searches I have come across several other types of cranes, so could a science project telling about the different types of cranes and their mechanisms or maybe just stick to one specific type like the gantry crane and describe the different styles of that crane.

The two cranes that the port uses are the dockside gantry crane and the other is the rubber tire gantry crane. The rubber tire crane has several different styles and models however both of these are used for the moving the the containers. One for unloading from ships and the other is used for moving and loading. I just don't know if the more detailed types of cranes will be difficult to get everything together in two weeks.

Again thank you for your help w/ both links.