A macroscopic model of a container terminal based on diachronic networks

Abstract

Today the efficiency of container terminals plays a major role in freight transportation. Many existing contributions to the simulation of terminal operations take a macroscopic approach, which serves mainly to support strategic decisions regarding terminal container configurations. Other contributions take a microscopic approach, which allows detailed analysis but may lead to computational problems and is computationally demanding, especially when the resulting models are used to support optimization; hence the main applications of this approach focus on specific operations, aimed at supporting operational management decisions. This paper proposes a macroscopic simulation model, based on a diachronic capacitated flow network model, derived from general assignment models. The proposed model can be fairly easily calibrated against real data and applied to analyze the current configuration, as well as simulate and evaluate alternative design configurations. Results of an application to the Salerno Container Terminal are also reported.