The problem of analysing operational policies for transhipping containers in a port container terminal is studied using an agent-based simulation approach. The decision makers involved in transhipment operations, i.e., the terminal manager, the port captain, the stevedores and the ship captains, as well as some of the operators of the physical resources, such as cranes and straddle carriers, ar...

In the Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) the aim is to optimally schedule and assign ships to berthing areas along a quay. The objective is the minimization of the total (weighted) service time for all ships, defined as the time elapsed between the arrival in the harbor and the completion of handling. Two versions of the BAP are considered: the discrete case and the continuous case. The discrete c...

We consider the problem of allocating berth positions for vessels in tidal bulk port terminals. A berth is defined as a specific location alongside a quay where a ship loader is available for loading or unloading vessels, accommodating only one vessel at a time. In tidal ports, draft conditions depend on high tide conditions, since available depth at low tide is not adequate for the movement of...

We study the problems associated with allocating berths for containerships in the port of Seville. It is the only inland port in Spain and it is located on the Guadalquivir River. This paper addresses the berth allocation planning problems using simulation and optimisation with Arena software. We propose a mathematical model and develop a heuristic procedure based on genetic algorithm to solve ...

A container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles. We focus our attention on the transshipment between vessels and land vehicles, in which case the terminal is described as a maritime container terminal. In these container terminals, many combinatorial related problems appear and the solution of one of the problems may affect to the ...

In the operations research (OR) literature on port operations planning, there are a significant number of studies addressing decision problems in the context of container terminal management. Bulk terminals on the other hand, have been largely ignored. In this thesis, we study some of the key decision problems such as the berth allocation problem and the yard assignment problem in the bulk cont...

The Berth Allocation Problem aims at assigning and scheduling incoming vessels to berthing positions along the quay of a container terminal. This problem is a well-known optimization problem within maritime shipping. For solving it, we propose two POPMUSIC (Partial Optimization Metaheuristic Under Special Intensification Conditions) approaches that incorporate an existing mathematical programmi...

The Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) consists on programming and allocating ships to berthing areas along a quay. The BAP is modeled as a vehicle routing problem and a recently proposed evolutionary hybrid method denominated PTA/LP is used to solve it. The PTA/LP combines the Population Training Algorithm with Linear Programming to generate improving incoming columns in a column generation proces...