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

On the benefit of modifying the strategic allocation of cyclically calling vessels for multi-terminal container operators

We present a case study based on a multi-terminal container operation in Antwerp, Belgium, where a set of cyclically calling container vessels is processed. The operator faces the problem of strategically allocating a terminal, a berthing interval, and a variable number of quay cranes to the vessels in the set. Restricting properties are terminal quay lengths, number of quay cranes and storage capacities. Currently, the operator's objective is to satisfy the preferences of the vessel lines, with respect to a terminal and berthing time, as much as possible. We are interested in the benefit of modifying a given allocation, i.e. the potential crane and inter-terminal costs savings if specific changes to a given allocation are allowed. An MILP is implemented in a two-step optimization, which enables us to efficiently investigate the benefit of modification. Experimental results suggest that small changes in a given allocation may lead to significant cost savings

Review of MVDC applications, technologies, and future prospects

This paper presents a complete review of MVDC applications and their required technologies. Four main MVDC applications were investigated: rail, shipboard systems, distribution grids, and offshore collection systems. For each application, the voltage and power levels, grid structures, converter topologies, and protection and control structure were reviewed. Case studies of the varying applications as well as the literature were analyzed to ascertain the common trends and to review suggested future topologies. For rail, ship, and distribution systems, the technology and ability to implement MVDC grids is available, and there are already a number of case studies. Offshore wind collection systems, however, are yet able to be implemented. Across the four applications, the MVDC voltages ranged from 5–50 kV DC and tens of MW, with some papers suggesting an upper limit of 100 kV DC and hundreds of MV for distribution networks and offshore wind farm applications. This enables the use of varying technologies at both the lower and high voltage ranges, giving flexibility in the choice of topology that is required required