FEASIBILITY OF DETACHABLE CARGO UNITS

An economic feasibility study was carried out for articulated ships; that is, vessels made up of a single power-plant section and several independent cargo sections, each of which can be detached and used as a barge. The evaluation was made by means of two computer simulation models. The first model was designed to consider economic factors primarily and simulates only very simple operational characteristics. The second model simulated a much more realistic operation, allowing for stochastic fluctuations in many quantities, unrestricted trade paterns, and Poisson cargo generation. This second and more complex simulation model considered only the operational characteristics of articulated vessels and was constructed in order to give a correction for the simplified operation of the first model. It is concluded that for the same number of vessels per fleet and the same bale cubic of each vessel, an articulated fleet can carry approximately twice as much per year as a conventional fleet. At the same time, the freight rate which each fleet must charge in order to achieve the same CRF is less for the articulated fleet by from $.08 to $.40 (per long ton per 100 miles) depending on the number of ports involved.(Author)

• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Department of Civil Engineering, 77 Massachusetts Avenue
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139
• Authors:
  • Hughes, O F
• Publication Date: 1963-6

Media Info

• Pagination: 146 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economics; Operations research; Shipping; Tug ship interaction
• Old TRIS Terms: Shipping economics; Tug barge systems
• Subject Areas: Economics; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00026664
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: DSR-9295
• Contract Numbers: MA-2710
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 2 1973 12:00AM