Optimization of Luffing-Tower Crane Location in Tall Building Construction

The luffing-tower crane (T/C) is a key facility used in the vertical and horizontal transportation of materials in a tall building construction. Locating the crane in an optimal position is an essential task in the initial stages of construction planning. This paper proposes a new optimization model to locate the luffing T/C in the optimal position to minimize the transportation time. A newly developed mathematical formula is suggested to calculate the transportation time of luffing T/C correctly. An optimization algorithm, the Harmony Search (HS) algorithm, was used and the results show that HS has high performance characteristics to solve the optimization problem in a short period of time. In a case study, the proposed model offered a better position for T/C than the previous heuristic approach.