Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

1323

Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Engineering

Concentration

Civil Engineering

Committee Member

Mihalis Golias

Committee Member

Sabyasachee Mishra

Committee Member

Stephanie Ivey

Abstract

International seaborne trade rose significantly during the past decades. This created the need to improve efficiency of liner shipping services and marine container terminal operations to meet the growing demand. The objective of this dissertation is to develop simulation and mathematical models that may enhance operations of liner shipping services and marine container terminals, taking into account the main goals of liner shipping companies (e.g., reduce fuel consumption and vessel emissions, ensure on-time arrival to each port of call, provide vessel scheduling strategies that capture sailing time variability, consider variable port handling times, increase profit, etc.) and terminal operators (e.g., decrease turnaround time of vessels, improve terminal productivity without significant capital investments, reduce possible vessel delays and associated penalties, ensure fast recovery in case of natural and man-made disasters, make the terminal competitive, maximize revenues, etc.). This dissertation proposes and models two alternatives for improving operations of marine container terminals: 1) a floaterm concept and 2) a new contractual agreement between terminal operators. The main difference between floaterm and conventional marine container terminals is that in the former case some of import and/or transshipment containers are handled by off-shore quay cranes and placed on container barges, which are further towed by push boats to assigned feeder vessels or floating yard. According to the new collaborative agreement, a dedicated marine container terminal operator can divert some of its vessels for the service at a multi-user terminal during specific time windows. Another part of dissertation focuses on enhancing operations of liner shipping services by introducing the following: 1) a new collaborative agreement between a liner shipping company and terminal operators and 2) a new framework for modeling uncertainty in liner shipping. A new collaborative mechanism assumes that each terminal operator is able to offer a set of handling rates to a liner shipping company, which may result in a substantial total route service cost reduction. The suggested framework for modeling uncertainty is expected to assist liner shipping companies in designing robust vessel schedules.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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