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A two-phase heuristic for an in-port ship routing problem with tank allocation

Abstract

This paper addresses an in-port ship routing problem with tank allocation that arises in the chemical shipping industry. The aim is to optimize a tanker’s port call operation that integrates sequencing decisions for visiting terminals and allocating cargo loads to available tanks while taking into account cargo time windows, terminal draft limits and various tank allocation restrictions. We model the problem as a Traveling Salesman Problem with Pickups and Deliveries, Time Windows, Draft Limits and Tank Allocation (TSPPD-TWDLTA), and propose a two-phase heuristic to solve it. Computational studies show that the heuristic is able to provide good solutions to real-sized in-port routing problems with tank allocation in chemical shipping in a reasonable amount of time.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Ocean / Energi og transport
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2017

Published in

Computers & Operations Research

ISSN

0305-0548

Volume

91

Page(s)

37 - 47

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository