In recent years,the close connection of the international supply chain and prosperity of maritime trade have led to a sharp increase in cargo throughput in many bulk ports.Meanwhile,as large ships gradually become the mainstream,ports that cannot provide sufficient deep-water berths due to natural conditions are constantly facing complaints from shipping companies.In this context,the reality that most bulk ports in China still rely primarily on shallow-water berths becomes particularly prominent.To alleviate the waiting pressure of large ships and meet service needs for small and medium-sized ships,how to efficiently utilize existing berth resources has become an important issue in port management.To this end,this paper conducts an in-depth study of the optimi-zation of berth allocation considering berth shifting operations.By designing flexible and efficient berth shifting operations,it can not only shorten the waiting time of large ships and reduce port congestion,but also better meet service needs for small and medium-sized ships and achieve balanced utilization of berth resources.This paper first outlines the research background and emphasizes the importance and practical application value of studying berth allocation optimization considering berth shifting operations.Subsequently,it reviews and summarizes existing liter-ature from two aspects:one is the study of berth allocation without considering the impact of berth shifting opera-tions,which mainly focuses on the basic theory of classic berth allocation problems;the other is the study of berth allocation considering the impact of berth shifting operations,which pays more attention to the influence of berth shifting operations on port operation efficiency and service quality.Through combing and evaluating the existing literature,this paper further elaborates on the theoretical value and practical significance of the issue.This study can be described as follows:it focuses on the temporal and spatial constraints of continuous berths within a single terminal in bulk cargo ports,while considering factors such as the draft depth of arriving vessels and the operational berth shifting requirements for certain ships.It designs an optimal combination scheme for partially arriving vessels involving load-shifting and berth-shifting to reduce the total time spent by all arriving vessels in port.To achieve this,a berth allocation model is constructed with the objective of minimizing the total time spent by all arriving vessels in port.Additionally,an improved genetic algorithm,incorporating variable neighborhood concepts,is designed to solve the model and obtain the optimal berth allocation scheme.In the case study analysis,the effectiveness of this scheme is first validated by being compared with that of exist-ing schemes such as first-come-first-served and those that do not consider berth shifting operations.Secondly,the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by comparing it with that of the solution process of CPLEX.Finally,two types of sensitivity analysis experiments are conducted to analyze the impact of different proportions of large vessels and different intervals between vessel arrivals on berth allocation,emphasizing the importance of vessel arrival time intervals and considering periods with a higher proportion of large vessels among arriving vessels.The results indicate that,under the premise of limited berth resources,a berth allocation plan that encompasses appropriate combinations of load-shifting,berth-shifting,and operational berth shifting can effec-tively reduce the waiting time of vessels in port,thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.To further improve berth resource utilization,it is recommended to coordinate vessel schedules with anticipated arrivals from ship-ping companies to stagger vessel arrivals as much as possible,and to pre-plan large vessel allocation based on the scale and workload of arriving vessels,assigning multiple large vessels arriving in clusters to different terminals.These strategies offer new insights and significant reference value for the formulation of berth allocation plans in bulk cargo ports.
万方数据
维普
