Review of containership stowage plans for full routes

Containership stowage plans are a pivotal teaches in the system of container transportation.With the increasing containers shipping,planning containership stowage has become more and more complicated.So intelligent stowage planning for containerships is of great significance.An effective stowage plan may improve efficiency of transportation system.First,the progress of containership stowage plan at home and abroad is reviewed,including the latest developments,such as the application of various optimization methods and computer techniques to the problem.Then,the complexities of the problem are discussed and areas where investigations are still needed are pointed out.This will provide a reference for further research on the subject.

Model and algorithm for container ship stowage planning based on bin-packing problem

In a general case, container ship serves many different ports on each voyage. A stowage planning for container ship made at one port must take account of the influence on subsequent ports. So the complexity of stowage planning problem increases due to its multi-ports nature. This problem is NP-hard problem. In order to reduce the computational complexity, the problem is decomposed into two sub-problems in this paper. First, container ship stowage problem (CSSP) is regarded as 'packing problem', ship-bays on the board of vessel are regarded as bins, the number of slots at each bay are taken as capacities of bins, and containers with different characteristics (homogeneous containers group) are treated as items packed. At this stage, there are two objective functions, one is to minimize the number of bays packed by containers and the other is to minimize the number of overstows. Secondly, containers assigned to each bays at first stage are allocate to special slot, the objective functions are to minimize the metacentric height, heel and overstows.The taboo search heuristics algorithm are used to solve the subproblem. The main focus of this paper is on the first subproblem. A case certifies the feasibility of the model and algorithm.

Research on optimization of valve open time of the launch barge's ballast tanks

Launch barge is an effective tool for transporting ship segments from one place to another in shipyards. During shifting of segments onto a barge, the slideway on the barge＇s deck must be adjusted to maintain the same level as the wharf and also the barge must be kept level by adjusting the water in the ballast tanks. When to open the adjusting valves is an important factor influencing the barge＇s trim during the water-adjustment process. Because these adjustments are complex a mathematical model was formulated,after analyzing the characteristics of the process of moving the segments onto the barges deck, and considering the effects of this movement＇s speed and variations in tidal levels during the move. Then the model was solved by the penalty function method, the grid method, and improved simulated annealing, respectively. The best optimization model and its corresponding solution were then determined. Finally, it was proven that the model and the method adopted are correct and suitable, by calculating and analysing an example.

The RHSA Strategy for the Allocation of Outbound Containers Based on the Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

Secure storage yard is one of the optimal core goals of container transportation;thus,making the necessary storage arrangements has become the most crucial part of the container terminal management systems（CTMS）.This paper investigates a random hybrid stacking algorithm（RHSA） for outbound containers that randomly enter the yard.In the first stage of RHSA,the distribution among blocks was analyzed with respect to the utilization ratio.In the second stage,the optimization of bay configuration was carried out by using the hybrid genetic algorithm.Moreover,an experiment was performed to test the RHSA.The results show that the explored algorithm is useful to increase the efficiency.