Abstract
The yard template problem in container ports determines the assignment of space to store containers for the vessels, which could impact container truck paths. Actually, the travel time of container truck paths is uncertain. This paper considers the uncertainty from two perspectives: (1) the yard congestion in the context of yard truck interruptions, (2) the correlation among adjacent road sections (links). A mixed-integer programming model is proposed to minimize the travel time of container trucks. The reliable shortest path, which takes the correlation among links into account is firstly discussed. To settle the problem, a Shuffled Complex Evolution Approach (SCE-UA) algorithm is designed to work out the assignment of yard template, and the A* algorithm is presented to find the reliable shortest path according to the port operator’s attitude. In our case study, one yard in Dalian (China) container port is chosen to test the applicability of the model. The result shows the proposed model can save 9% of the travel time of container trucks, compared with the model without considering the correlation among adjacent links.
Highlights
BackgroundCompared with the growth rate of world GDP, the amount of container transportation has increased about three times (Meng et al 2014)
The yard congestion and impact among adjacent links truly affect the actual travel time of container trucks in ports; »» second, this paper considers the probability of arriving at the destination within the expected travel time
The results show that a yard with the size of 144 subblocks can save the total truck travel time by 9% when its yard template is optimized by considering the correlation among adjacent links
Summary
Compared with the growth rate of world GDP, the amount of container transportation has increased about three times (Meng et al 2014). The travel distance is minimized, the container trucks may waste lots of time when there has congestion along the path. When there are too many container trucks running along a link or passing through a cross at the same time, the cruising speed of these trucks will be affected by each other In this condition, the trucks have to slow down or even stop when they come across yard congestion. The travel time of a container truck is uncertain with the consideration of yard congestion on some link and the impact of adjacent links. This is the reason why the optimized distance is not equivalent to the optimized travel time. Our motivation is to minimize the travel time and find a reliable shortest path for container trucks considering the uncertain travel time
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