RMGC
RMGC-Simulation of Seaport Container Terminals
Planning and Optimizing of Automated Yard Crane Systems
During the last decades, there have been steady growth rates in international trade. Along with this development - which is one of the main aspects of the globalization process - there have been huge growth rates for the maritime container shipping industry. Nowadays, the overseas transport of finished consumer goods is almost always carried out in standardized steel boxes on deep-sea-container vessels. Along with the growth in worldwide container transportation, the number and size of ports as well as the competition among them have increased. In this context, the container storage yard is of special importance, since it is not just the storage area for containers; it is the interface between waterside and landside transport chains.
One of the latest trends in storage systems for seaport container terminals are yard blocks that are operated by automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGC).
Several types of this storage system have already been put into operation and many further variants are imaginable. These variants differ in width, length and stacking height of the yard blocks as well as the number and the crossing ability of the gantry cranes.
Within the framework of this research project, several types of the RMGC-system for container yards are systematically studied. The objectives of the research project are:
- developing a simulation model for the RMGC-system that is close to reality,
- identifying the mutual performance effects of the yard block layout and the crane system,
- developing system-dependent planning methods for container stacking and crane development that improve the performance of the yard block system, and
- executing sensitivity analyses of the identified performance effects.
The contact person for this research project is Nils Kemme.