Model and Resilience Analysis for Handling Chain Systems in Container Ports

Abstract

Container ports are critical components of global port and shipping supply chain (PSSC) systems. Their handling operation resiliencies can affect their performance, along with those of the overall port and shipping supply chain. According to the characteristics of the container handling operations, this study establishes a modeling paradigm for quantifying the resilience of handling chain system (HCS) in container ports. Considering the nonnegative arrive rate and the container handling completion rate, with the upper limit in real container port environments, nonlinear links have been added into the model of the HCS. The resilience of the HCS was analyzed according to the different pole distributions of unsatisfied freight requirement transfer function. Simulation results show that the upper limit of the container handling completion rate has a significant impact on the resilience of the HCS. The contributions herein demonstrate a starting point in the development of a quantitative resilience decision making framework and mitigating the negative impacts for port authorities and other players in the PSSC.

A Novel Sliding Mode Control with Low-Pass Filter for Nonlinear Handling Chain System in Container Ports

“…Our nonlinear model extends the nonlinear model of Xu et al in that our model explicitly considers the unsatisfied freight requirement constraint, whereas the model of Xu et al assumed that the value of the unsatisfied freight requirement may be negative, although it does not exist in the actual operation [5]. Under real environments of container ports, the value of arate(t) cannot be negative, although mathematically it holds; the upper value of comrate(t) is limited; fr(t) is not constant; ufr(t) should not be negative even in the case of a sharp drop in fr(t).…”

“…Xu et al modeled the nonlinear handling chain in the container port with control approach. In addition, the authors demonstrated a starting point in the development of a quantitative resilience decision-making framework and mitigating the negative impacts for port authorities and other players in the port and shipping supply chain [5]. However, the exiting models and solution approaches have the following limitations that might hinder practical applications: (i) their model relies on highly simplified assumptions that reducing the complexity of the problem; as a result, the accuracy of their models may vary a lot under different dynamical conditions, and (ii) since their solution method is not a practically applicable exact approach, the method may incur unsatisfied freight service requests even if the handling plans proposed by the port operators are feasible; as a result, the port operators may need to revise their plans frequently, which is undesirable in practice.…”

“…e linear model of the handling chain system in container ports is shown in Figure 1. For detailed description of the handling chain system in container ports, we refer the readers to Xu et al [5], where quay cranes, trucks, and yard cranes etc., collaborate to handle containers from the berth to yard and vice versa. However, tuning the control parameters in the linear model for implementation to real container ports is not an easy task due to coping with the dynamics of uncertainties and disturbances.…”

“…Container port handling is a complex and dynamic system where different types of machines (such as truck, yard crane, and gantry crane) cooperate closely to complete the transport of inbound and outbound containers between quayside and stack [4]. e container port handling chain system (HCS) may be divided into five main individual operations [5]. More specifically, they are the delivery/ receipt of containers, yard crane loading and unloading operations, yard truck/AGV horizontal transportation between the berth and yard, gantry crane loading and unloading operations, and container vessel berthing [6,7].…”

Exploring the Resilience of Uncertain Nonlinear Handling Chain Systems in Container Ports With a Novel Sliding Mode Control

“…However, accompanied with the deterioration of the global economic and trade environment, container ports are facing more challenges, such as fiercer and fiercer competition, improving the service level, attracting freight source, saving operation cost, promoting operation efficiency (He etc., 2019) [1]. The resilient and efficient container handling chain system (HCS) has been presented as an opportunity to improve the operations and performances of container port simultaneously (Xu etc., 2019) [2]. Because of these benefits, the container handling chain system has attracted much attention from port authorities and other players in the port and shipping supply chain, and researchers worldwide.…”