Abstract
In view of the trend of upsizing ships, the physical limitations of natural waterways, huge expenses, and unsustainable environmental impact of channel widening, this paper aims to provide a cost-efficient but applicable solution to improve the operational performance of container terminals that are enduring inefficiency caused by channel traffic limitations. We propose a novel berth scheduling problem considering the traffic limitations in the navigation channel, which appears in many cases including insufficient channel width, bad weather, poor visibility, channel accidents, maintenance dredging of the navigation channel, large vessels passing through the channel, and so on. To optimally utilize the berth and improve the service quality for customers, we propose a mixed-integer linear programming model to formulate the berth scheduling problem under the one-way ship traffic rule in the navigation channel. Furthermore, we develop a more generalized model which can cope with hybrid traffic in the navigation channel including one-way traffic, two-way traffic, and temporary closure of the navigation channel. For large-scale problems, a hybrid simulated annealing algorithm, which employs a problem-specific heuristic, is presented to reduce the computational time. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method.
Highlights
Maritime transportation has a major role in driving economic growth and globalization, as it accounts for four fifths of the world’s total merchandise trade [1]
By better scheduling the berth rather than widening the channel, which is unsustainable and costly, we provide a new perspective and solution to improve the performance of container terminals that are enduring inefficiency caused by channel traffic limitations
We propose a novel berth scheduling problem, namely BSPCTW, that considers traffic limitations in the navigation channels of ports
Summary
Maritime transportation has a major role in driving economic growth and globalization, as it accounts for four fifths of the world’s total merchandise trade [1]. In many container ports worldwide, including some of the top ranked ports in terms of throughput, vessels entering and leaving have to pass through navigation channels, which significantly limits the operational efficiency of container terminals. Vessels calling at the port may have to wait a long time at the outer anchorage until the navigation channel becomes available for entering/inward traffic, even when the berth is available. Due to the trend of upsizing ships, the huge expense and environmental impact of channel widening and the physical limitations of natural waterways, more and more terminal operators will have to face this problem.
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