Sea Container Terminals

Due to a rapid growth in world trade and a huge increase in containerized goods, sea container terminals play a vital role in globe-spanning supply chains. Container terminals should be able to handle large ships, with large call sizes within the shortest time possible, and at competitive rates. In response, terminal operators, shipping liners, and port authorities are investing in new technologies to improve container handling infrastructure and operational efficiency. Container terminals face challenging research problems which have received much attention from the academic community. The focus of this paper is to highlight the recent developments in the container terminals, which can be categorized into three areas: (1) innovative container terminal technologies, (2) new OR directions and models for existing research areas, and (3) emerging areas in container terminal research. By choosing this focus, we complement existing reviews on container terminal operations

Sequence-Based Simulation-Optimization Framework With Application to Port Operations at Multimodal Container Terminals

It is evident in previous works that operations research and mathematical algorithms can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions, whereas simulation models can aid in predicting and studying the behavior of systems over time and monitor performance under stochastic and uncertain circumstances. Given the intensive computational effort that simulation optimization methods impose, especially for large and complex systems like container terminals, a favorable approach is to reduce the search space to decrease the amount of computation. A maritime port can consist of multiple terminals with specific functionalities and specialized equipment. A container terminal is one of several facilities in a port that involves numerous resources and entities. It is also where containers are stored and transported, making the container terminal a complex system. Problems such as berth allocation, quay and yard crane scheduling and assignment, storage yard layout configuration, container re-handling, customs and security, and risk analysis become particularly challenging. Discrete-event simulation (DES) models are typically developed for complex and stochastic systems such as container terminals to study their behavior under different scenarios and circumstances. Simulation-optimization methods have emerged as an approach to find optimal values for input variables that maximize certain output metric(s) of the simulation. Various traditional and nontraditional approaches of simulation-optimization continue to be used to aid in decision making. In this dissertation, a novel framework for simulation-optimization is developed, implemented, and validated to study the influence of using a sequence (ordering) of decision variables (resource levels) for simulation-based optimization in resource allocation problems. This approach aims to reduce the computational effort of optimizing large simulations by breaking the simulation-optimization problem into stages. Since container terminals are complex stochastic systems consisting of different areas with detailed and critical functions that may affect the output, a platform that accurately simulates such a system can be of significant analytical benefit. To implement and validate the developed framework, a large-scale complex container terminal discrete-event simulation model was developed and validated based on a real system and then used as a testing platform for various hypothesized algorithms studied in this work

Future Greener Seaports:A Review of New Infrastructure, Challenges, and Energy Efficiency Measures

Recently, the application of renewable energy sources (RESs) for power distribution systems is growing immensely. This advancement brings several advantages, such as energy sustainability and reliability, easier maintenance, cost-effective energy sources, and ecofriendly. The application of RESs in maritime systems such as port microgrids massively improves energy efficiency and reduces the utilization of fossil fuels, which is a serious threat to the environment. Accordingly, ports are receiving several initiatives to improve their energy efficiency by deploying different types of RESs based on the power electronic converters. This paper conducts a systematic review to provide cutting-edge state-of-the-art on the modern electrification and infrastructure of seaports taking into account some challenges such as the environmental aspects, energy efficiency enhancement, renewable energy integration, and legislative and regulatory requirements. Moreover, the technological methods, including electrifications, digitalization, onshore power supply applications, and energy storage systems of ports, are addressed. Furthermore, details of some operational strategies such as energy-aware operations and peak-shaving are delivered. Besides, the infrastructure scheme to enhance the energy efficiency of modern ports, including port microgrids and seaport smart microgrids are delivered. Finally, the applications of nascent technologies in seaports are presented

Discrete-Event Control and Optimization of Container Terminal Operations

This thesis discusses the dynamical modeling of complex container terminal operations. In the current literature, the systems are usually modeled in static way using linear programming techniques. This setting does not completely capture the dynamic aspects in the operations, where information about external factors such as ships and trucks arrivals or departures and also the availability of terminal's equipment can always change. We propose dynamical modeling of container terminal operations using discrete-event systems (DES) modeling framework. The basic framework in this thesis is the DES modeling for berth and quay crane allocation problem (BCAP) where the systems are not only dynamic, but also asynchronous. We propose a novel berth and QC allocation method, namely the model predictive allocation (MPA) which is based on model predictive control principle and rolling horizon implementation. The DES models with asynchronous event transition is mathematically analyzed to show the efficacy of our method. We study an optimal input allocation problem for a class of discrete-event systems with dynamic input sequence (DESDIS). We show that in particular, the control input can be obtained by the minimization/maximization of the present input sequence only. We have shown that the proposed approach performed better than the existing method used in the studied terminal and state-of-the-art methods in the literature

Heuristic container placement algorithms

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Computer Engineering, Izmir, 2003Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 56-58)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishviii, 72 leavesWith the growth of transportation over sea; defining transportation processes in a better way and finding ways to make transportation processes more effective have become one of the most important research areas of today. Especially in the last quartet of the previous decade, the computers had become much powerful tools with their impressive amount of data processing cababilites. It was imminent that computers had begun taking serious roles in the system development studies. As a result; constructing models for the processes in container terminals and processing the data with the computers create opportunities for the automation of various processes in container terminals. The final step of these studies is the full automation of terminal activities with software packages that combine various functions focused on various processes in a single system.This study is about a project that had been made for a container terminal owned by a special company. During this study; there had been discussions with experts about the subject, and container handling processes in the terminal had been analyzed in order to define the main structure of the yard management software to be created.This study focuses on the container handling activities over the yard space so as to create a basis for a computer system that will take part in the decisions during the container operations. Object oriented analysis and design methods are used for the definition of the system that will help the decisions in the yard operations. The optimization methodology that will be the core of the container placement decisions is based on using different placement patterns and placement algorithms for different conditions. These placement patterns and algorithms are constructed due to the container handling machinery that was being used in the terminal that this study has been made for

Development of a multimodal port freight transportation model for estimating container throughput

Computer based simulation models have often been used to study the multimodal freight transportation system. But these studies have not been able to dynamically couple the various modes into one model; therefore, they are limited in their ability to inform on dynamic system level interactions. This research thesis is motivated by the need to dynamically couple the multimodal freight transportation system to operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. It is part of a larger research program to develop a systems modeling framework applicable to freight transportation. This larger research program attempts to dynamically couple railroad, seaport, and highway freight transportation models. The focus of this thesis is the development of the coupled railroad and seaport models. A separate volume (Wall 2010) on the development of the highway model has been completed. The model railroad and seaport was developed using Arena® simulation software and it comprises of the Ports of Savannah, GA, Charleston, NC, Jacksonville, FL, their adjacent CSX rail terminal, and connecting CSX railroads in the southeastern U.S. However, only the simulation outputs for the Port of Savannah are discussed in this paper. It should be mentioned that the modeled port layout is only conceptual; therefore, any inferences drawn from the model's outputs do not represent actual port performance. The model was run for 26 continuous simulation days, generating 141 containership calls, 147 highway truck deliveries of containers, 900 trains, and a throughput of 28,738 containers at the Port of Savannah, GA. An analysis of each train's trajectory from origin to destination shows that trains spend between 24 - 67 percent of their travel time idle on the tracks waiting for permission to move. Train parking demand analysis on the adjacent shunting area at the multimodal terminal seems to indicate that there aren't enough containers coming from the port because the demand is due to only trains waiting to load. The simulation also shows that on average it takes containerships calling at the Port of Savannah about 3.2 days to find an available dock to berth and unload containers. The observed mean turnaround time for containerships was 4.5 days. This experiment also shows that container residence time within the port and adjacent multimodal rail terminal varies widely. Residence times within the port range from about 0.2 hours to 9 hours with a mean of 1 hour. The average residence time inside the rail terminal is about 20 minutes but observations varied from as little as 2 minutes to a high of 2.5 hours. In addition, about 85 percent of container residence time in the port is spent idle. This research thesis demonstrates that it is possible to dynamically couple the different sub-models of the multimodal freight transportation system. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed by future research. The principal challenge is the development of a more efficient train movement algorithm that can incorporate the actual Direct Traffic Control (DTC) and / or Automatic Block Signal (ABS) track segmentation. Such an algorithm would likely improve the capacity estimates of the railroad network. In addition, future research should seek to reduce the high computational cost imposed by a discrete process modeling methodology and the adoption of single container resolution level for terminal operations. A methodology combining both discrete and continuous process modeling as proposed in this study could lessen computational costs and lower computer system requirements at a cost of some of the feedback capabilities of the model This tradeoff must be carefully examined.M.S.Committee Chair: Rodgers, Michael; Committee Member: Guensler, Randall; Committee Member: Hunter, Michae