Abstract
The transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has significant impact on traffic capacity of waterways, especially the approach channels shared by LNG carriers and other types of ships (general cargo ships, container ships, etc.). Few studies take the behavioral characteristics of LNG carriers and their impacts into consideration. In this paper, we propose a framework for capacity analysis of shared approach channels based on the spatial–temporal consumption method. It consists of three modules: (1) the tide module predicts the tidal height and tidal time for identifying the time windows for LNG carriers; (2) the spatial–temporal consumption module is introduced to calculate the capacity of approach channels; (3) the LNG carrier navigation module is for analyzing the characteristics of LNG carriers and the impact on the capacity of approach channels. A spatial–temporal indexed chart is designed to visualize the utilization of the spatial–temporal resources. A case study on the approach channel of Yueqing Bay near the east coast of China is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the framework. The utilization rates of the approach channel and the impact of LNG carriers are presented using our method. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed traffic capacity analyzing framework can provide support for making traffic management strategies.
Highlights
We propose a framework for capacity analysis of approach channels shared by liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and OTS, including the tide module, the spatial–temporal consumption module, and the LNG carrier navigation module
The framework consists of three modules, i.e., the tide module, the spatial–temporal consumption module, and the LNG carrier navigation module
We propose a framework for capacity analysis of shared approach channels based on spatial–temporal consumption
Summary
World globalization and containerization have led to a significant increase in ship traffic in most of the commercial ports around the world. As the approach channels are usually the bottlenecks of the ports [1], capacity analysis of the approach channels is essential when designing a port, or making traffic management strategies, especially for those ships carrying dangerous goods, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG carriers demand a larger mobile safety zone than OTS because the dimensions of LNG carriers are usually huge. They have to make use of the tide to pass through the channels. We propose a framework for capacity analysis of approach channels shared by LNG carriers and OTS, including the tide module, the spatial–temporal consumption module, and the LNG carrier navigation module. A case study of approach channels in Yueqing Bay near the east coast of China is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework
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