Discrete-event modelling of container terminal cargo fronts

Abstract

The basis for designing and upgrading new sea ports and container terminals is regulatory documentation. A part of designing a new sea port is making key technological decisions, including on calculating its cargo throughput capacity. However a method for capacity evaluation of operating ports is not described in the regulatory documents. Operating cargo terminals often undergo significant changes since the moment they were put into operation. Equipment, resources and infrastructure of cargo fronts should not be the only thing taken into consideration when evaluating an existing container terminal capacity. The way in which a terminal interacts with external transport systems (railroad, vessel fleet, etc.) as well as interactions between cargo fronts inside a terminal should also be considered. A discrete-event simulation model for the system consisting of a railroad cargo front, a container yard and a berth cargo front of a container terminal is proposed in the paper. This model allows to evaluate the balance between calls of different modes of transport (vessel calls, cargo train calls), as well as the impact of this balance on the state of container yard and on the terminal cargo throughput capacity in general. Container terminal in terms of proposed model is not merely a set of unrelated objects, but a system. In such system interaction with one of elements has influence on all the others. The model is described as mathematical dependencies between key variables. Cargo train and vessel calls generation is performed via standard spreadsheet methods. To acquire more accurate results, specific sea port statistical data should be used.