A method to estimate the capacity of an intersection of waterways in ports

Abstract

The maritime transportation growth leads to more intensively used waterways, especially in ports. Since the capacity of an intersection of waterways becomes more important, this research presents a new method to estimate this capacity. Based on an analogy between roads and waterways, the conflict technique is applied to an intersection of waterways. The vessel flows in each direction and their conflicting movements are input for the capacity calculation. The generic method can be applied to any intersection, considering the conflicts between the different streams in the intersection and the flows inferred from empirical data or from predictions. The applicability of the method is shown with two case studies, based on data from the Port of Rotterdam. After using the proposed method, we compare the real flows with the estimated ones to assess the capacity estimates. This method can improve traffic management strategies, traffic rules in waterway intersections or port designs. ARTICLE HISTORY

Simulation study on passing capacity of port waterway based on traffic flow characteristics

“…With the increasing port throughput and the trend of large-scale ships, the characteristics of ship traffic and the complex structures of ship traffic are increasingly high-lighted (Meng, et al 2014, Bye, et al 2019), and it is necessary to study the impact of ship traffic flow characteristics on the passage capacity of the waterway (Kadarsa, et al 2016). Scholars at home and abroad have carried out research on the passage capacity of the waterway from various aspects, mainly including the analysis of factors affecting the passage capacity of the waterway, such as ship field (Szlapczynski, et al 2017), ship type and size (Liu, et al 2016), navigation mode (Olba, et al 2019), ship speed (Nie, et al 2017), service rules (Wang, et al 2017), internal anchorage scale (Wang, et al 2017), channel condition (Liu, et al 2020), and so on. It lacks the consideration of the influence of the change in the characteristics of the ship traffic flow, in particular the trend towards larger vessels, on the capacity of the waterway.…”