2022 Volume 14 Pages 2314-2329
With the improvement of loading facilities and management technical of coal export terminal (CET), shipment speed at CET has increased rapidly. However, due to the restrictions of ship stability and discharge equipment, ballast water discharge speed cannot match the speed up process of shipment. Therefore, ships have to spend additional waiting time in CET for ballast water discharge, which aggerated the port congestion problem and affecting port efficiency. Dealing with this bottleneck problem, this research proposes a simulation-based method for scheduling ship ballast water discharge in CET. A multi-agent model has been established to investigate the influence of the pre-discharge of ballast water on terminal through capacity. An optimal combination for the proportion of pre-discharged ballast water by ship type has been explored. The effectiveness of the optimization method has been verified through a large CET in North China, where the annual throughput has increased by 2.96% in this study.
