Simulation On Integrated Berth And Handling Machinery Assignment Of Container Terminal Based On Queuing Theory

Driven by economies of scale, the ship size enlarges, the container trafficexpands, and the deep water channel becomes the trend for large ports’ development.With the growth of the terminal throughput, increasing the number of handlingmachineries will improve the handling ability of single berth, decrease the total staytime for waiting, loading and unloading at berth, thus decrease the cost for shipowners. However, when the number of handling machineries reaches a threshold, theaverage time of a ship at port will no longer reduce. In order to decrease the stay timeof ships, the port has to construct new berths and matching handling machineries,which means a large sum of port’s investment. Therefore, this thesis determines theappropriate number of berths and matching handling machineries, so as to maximizethe effectiveness for both port and ship, and furthermore provide a reference for theport’s renovation, expansion and future planning.In this thesis, firstly, a brief introduction to the container terminal handlingmachinery, yard and handling technology is made. The application of queuing theoryin the container terminal handling process is detailedly explained. And throughtheoretical analysis, evaluation criteria for the container terminal handling system areproposed. Secondly, a numerical simulation model is established using the simulationsoftware Arena to research the container terminal handling system. The thesis makes adetailed description of each operating modules, and gives a method for determiningsimulation parameters. The following conclusions can be drawn by the numericalsimulation model.Assuming that the number of berths is fixed, the quay crane number of singleberth is optimal, the average stay time of ships being the primary control factor andAWT/AST the secondary control factor, different combinations of gantry cranenumber and inner truck number are designed. According to certain selection principle,the thesis figures out the optimal gantry crane number and inner truck number for agiven designed annual throughput of the container terminal. When the number ofberths is not fixed, based on the appropriate berth number and quay crane number ofsingle berth, the joint configuration of the berth number, the quay crane number, the yard crane number and the inner truck number is conducted. Thereby, the optimalcombination of berth number and handling machinery number is obtained.At last, the shortcomings in this thesis are expounded, which indicates thedirection of subsequent research.