Improvement of a System Controlling a Process of Railcars Unloading in the Context of Changes in Temperature Mode While Operating

Abstract

Context. The problems of cost minimizing for the delivery of raw materials, fuel and materials, while meeting all the requirements of end user in terms of transportation, condition, quality and amount of the cargo, the compliance of the rolling stock with the equipment of unloading points, etc. are still the key problems of efficient transportation management. A problem to improve a system controlling a process of cargo operations performance at industrial enterprises during the cold season, when well-managed process is considerably complicated by the influence of stochastic fluctuations in the environmental temperature remains to be topical one. Delivery cost experiences significant increase due to the growth of power consumption for the cargo defrosting.The objective of the paper is to improve a system controlling a process of railcars unloading in terms of expectations of the negative changes in the temperature mode owing to optimization of the railcars distribution among the unloading points by the criterion of the idle time minimization.Method. Two temperature modes are singled out: standard operating mode in terms of positive temperatures and a mode of necessity to recover looseness of frozen cargos. The method of operative disbalance of incoming cargo flows has been developed to provide more rational distribution of cargos within cargo loading/unloading complexes during the periods of temperature changes being typical for Ukrainian climate. A new procedure to solve dynamic transportation problem with the varying intensity factor of incoming cargo flows in terms of time has been developed. A factor of minimum period for cargo operation has been proposed as an optimization criterion.Results. Methodology has been developed basing upon a method of operative disbalance of incoming cargo flows. Experiments concerning the methodology application have been carried out to improve the system controlling the process of railcars unloading in terms of changes in temperature mode.Conclusions. Analysis of the research results has shown that the proposed approach decreases significantly the idle time of the railcars in terms of temperature mode changes, reduces expenses connected with the railcars use as well as the expenses connected with the recovery cargo looseness and operation of locomotives.