Research On Hub-and-Spoke Intermodal Hub Network Optimization

With the development of the economic globalization, Hub-and-Spoke network has become the effective network structure which could help to collaborate transportation resource, reduce transportation cost and improve operational efficiencies. With the typical economic edges of highly efficient, secure, low-cost, intermodal transport plays an important part in the comprehensive transportation system and becomes a hotspot organization mode of the transport service industry in the nation and even in the whole world. The hub of the intermodal transport is the effective interface and the key infrastructures links between different transportation modes in the transport process. The optimization design and management quality of its network will have direct influence on the service quality of intermodal network. Intermodal with Hub-and-Spoke has increasingly used in transportation network because it can aggregate the shipment on transportation line and improve the utilization of transport resources in order to reduce the average cost per unit of shipment. Therefore, research on optimization of Hub-and-spoke intermodal hub network is particularly important.Basing on the analysis of the domestic and abroad developing process and current research status of Hub-and-Spoke intermodal hub network, this paper introduces some basic theory of Hub-and-spoke network optimization and intermodal transport, and analyses the use of intermodal transport in Hub-and-Spoke network and then summarizes the type and basic model about Hub-and-Spoke intermodal hub network optimization problem and applies the model and method of P-Hub median problem which came from the multiple dispatch problem in the node layout of traditional transportation network into the Hub-and-Spoke intermodal hub network, and then builds a mathematical model framework which minimizes the total cost by comprehensive considering the influencing factors in the hub networks, such as the fixed operation cost, transportation cost, hub transshipment, transportation scale effect, transportation capacity constraints and transportation time constraints ect. A tabu search is selected to solve the mathematic formulation. The solution, strategy and implementation process of the algorithms are developed. Using the tabu search to solve the small-scale problem verifies the effectiveness of the model and algorithm.Finally, through the actual data of20coals producing and selling places, the validity of model and algorithm are verified with MATLAB software. According to the factorial experiment, the different parameters such as hub capacity, discount factor and service time requirement are designed and the different results can be achieved. Then we analyses the output results which influence the total cost and the network structure. The conclusion of this paper can be used as a theoretical reference for network operator to manage Hub-and-Spoke intermodal hub network.