Simulation and optimisation of intermodal barge transport networks

Abstract

This is a summary of the author's PhD thesis supervised by Gerrit Janssens and Cathy Macharis and defended on 7 May 2010 at the Hasselt University, Belgium. The thesis is written in English and is available from the author upon request. This work deals with two key aspects in the competitiveness of intermodal transport making use of inland navigation. The first part of the thesis studies bundling of freight in intermodal barge transport networks. Alternative bundling strategies for container barge transport are compared by means of discrete event simulation. Cooperation between inland barge terminals to bundle freight flows is modelled as a service network design problem. The second part relates to the initial and final journey by road in the intermodal barge transport chain. Pre- and end-haulage by road is modelled as a Full Truckload Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows. A local search algorithm and deterministic annealing algorithm are proposed to find near-optimal solutions.