ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF SEGMENTED CARGO SHIP OPERATION

Assumptions are made that the engineering problems of coupling large water-borne 'containers' can be solved, and that the primary inducement for the development of such a system would be economic and logistic advantages. The problem is divided into two parts. The first is to evaluate the economic feasibility of articulated ships under simplified and idealized conditions and to compare its profitability with that of conventional ships. The second step is to examine how this performance is affected by the random or stochastic processes which were ignored in the simplified economic analysis. The economic aspect was treated first by constructing a model which would primarily consider economic factors (revenue, costs, rate of return, etc.), and which would simulate only very simple operating characteristics. This first model is actually a 'steady-state' analysis and so is not a true simulation in the strict sense of the word. The operational aspect was then examined with the use of a second model which allowed time-varying and stochastic inputs so as to give a high degree of realism. Treating these two aspects separately has made it possible to use the computer languages which are best suited to that type of problem: for the economic calculations, which are mainly algebraic, an algebraic language (FORTRAN) has been used, while the simulation of shipping operations uses a specialized simulation language (GPSSL-1).

• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139
• Authors:
  • Hughes, O F
  • Seibold, F
  • Frankel, E G
• Publication Date: 1964-8

Media Info

• Pagination: 249 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cargo handling; Cargo ships; Freight transportation; Tug ship interaction
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cargo flow
• Old TRIS Terms: Cargo operations; Tug barge systems
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00026752
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: MIT-DNA-64-9
• Contract Numbers: MA-2710
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 2 1973 12:00AM