Research On Optimization And Collaboration Strategies Of Inland River Container Intermodal Transport System

With the promulgation of national strategies such as the “Belt and Road” and “Transportation Power”,and the implementation of policies such as “roadway to waterway”,“roadway to railway” and “ bulk to containerization”,China’s transportation industry pays more and more attention to developing the intermodal transportation,and enhancing the systematic application of container transport system.This trend provides a favorable industrial policy and market environment for the development of containers and intermodal transportation,and also promotes the booming development of the inland container railway-waterway intermodal transportation.Studying the optimization and collaboration strategies of inland container intermodal transport system can not only upgrade the reform and transition of the inland comprehensive transportation business,but also optimize organization and establish standards for the inland intermodal transportation.Furthermore,this study will help the enterprises innovate and cooperate with each other to achieve efficient system optimization and container movement on the intermodal transportation networks.This dissertation comprehensively uses fundamental theories such as system engineering theory and methods,uncertain programming methods,queuing theory,and game theory.The dissertation focuses on four aspects of research: network optimization,freight flow distribution,transportation scheme optimization and organizational collaboration strategies of the inland container intermodal transportation to achieve the goal of reducing costs and improving efficiency.(1)Define inland container multimodal transport system.This dissertation proposes the concept and connotation of the inland waterways container intermodal transport system,and interprets it as a two-level system,called "internal trunk transshipment of inland river" and "external branch distribution of inland river".At the same time,this dissertation presents the inland river container H&S intermodal transportation framework via hub-and-spoke(H&S)type networks.Moreover,according to the abstract principle of the topological structure of the edges and nodes in the network,a hierarchical Intermodal topology structure model is built.(2)Study the network optimization of the entire inland container intermodal transportation system.This dissertation employs the uncertainty distribution to characterize the multidimensional uncertainty in the intermodal transportation network,constructs a bi-objective optimization model based on uncertain programming,and derives the deterministic equivalent forms of the expected objective function and chance constraints.After that,this dissertation develops a hybrid intelligent algorithm by combining the Epsilon constraint method and the memetic algorithm;and tests the performance of the proposed model and method on the Yangtze River trunk intermodal network and TR network data sets.At the same time,the sensitivity analysis is carried out to recognize the influence of containerization coefficient and the number of transfer nodes on the optimal values of time and cost objective functions.The results show that the smaller the containerization factor,the higher the containerization degree appears to be,leading to lower the transportation cost required per unit of transportation time.Therefore,increasing the containerization degree will help simultaneously reduce the cost and improve efficiency of the intermodal transport system.(3)Study the distribution of cargo flow in the branch distribution network formed by the container in the process of collecting and distributing outside the river.This dissertation uses the min-max decision criterion to construct a mixed integer nonlinear programming model by comprehensively considering the triple capacity limits of the transfer diversion hub,inland hub nodes and transportation lines,then employs the linearization technology to convert the original model into a linear programming model.After that,this dissertation develops a branch and cut method based on the branch and bound and cutting plane to obtain the optimal solutions.Finally,the case study is conducted through the actual data of the container on the Yangtze River trunk during the upstream consolidation process,and the sensitivity analysis is carried out to discuss the impact of different capacity constraints on the optimal objective value and the evolution of the cargo flow distribution network.The results demonstrate that with the increase of the capacity value in the direct waterway channel,the more the inland river hold the transportation volume in the cargo flow distribution plan,resulting in greatly reducing the total transportation cost.Therefore,improving the inland river traffic capacity will help to achieve a balanced tradeoff between supply and demand of container multimodal transport and an optimal supply configuration of the intermodal transportation network.(4)Study the optimization of transportation schemes such as congestion at the gate,long transit time of ships,and low transportation efficiency caused by the containner transportation in the inland river.This dissertation adopts the M/M/c queuing theory to describe the process of ship passing through the lock in the transportation scheme optimization problems such as congestion,long transit time and low transportation efficiency caused by the inland river container transportation.The two-stage modeling idea is then used to establish a bi-objective transportation route optimization model and a multi-mode selection model,respectively.For the route optimization model,an improved branch and bound algorithm is developed,and for the mode selection mode,the time cost analysis method is used to obtain the optimal intermodal transportation plans.Taking the Three Gorges hub port on the Yangtze River trunk as a case study,this dissertation discusses the impact of queuing waiting time on the optimal transportation scheme through the sensitivity analysis.At the same time,the two modes,i.e.,damturning intermodal transportation and water-water transfer are compared with traditional water transportation via the related indicators.The results imply that in the inland river transportation,the waiting time of ships can be reduced through the selection of multiple transportation modes.Finally,a comparative analysis of the relevant indicators of the dam-turning intermodal transport,water-water transfer mode and traditional water transport is carried out.The results illustrate that these two modes can shorten the waiting time of the ship.Therefore,by increasing the number of ship lifts and the carrying capacity,and strengthening the construction of highways and railway passages will improve the transshipment efficiency of the inland river trunk lines.(5)Studty the cooperative strategy of inland river container intermodal transportation under asymmetric information.From the perspective of operation management and leader-follower game,this dissertation addresses the cooperative strategies of inland container intermodal transport organization under asymmetric information.Based on the cooperative relationship between inland container intermodal transport operators and carriers,this dissertation formulates an uncertain bi-level programming model based on expectations and entropy decision criteria.Then,a two-step optimization method is developed to obtain clear expressions of the optimal incentive contract under two cases: information symmetry and information asymmetry,respectively.Furthermore,the impact of asymmetric information on the inland container intermodal contract design and revenue are investigated through the comparative study.The results demonstrate that the incentive coefficient decreases with the level of risk aversion,and the value of information increases with the level of risk aversion.The stronger willingness to obtain information the multimodal transport operator(MTO)has,the more meaningful it is to develop a reasonable multi-agent collaborative strategy.Therefore,under the asymmetric information,introducting an optimal contract mechanism to rationally share the overall revenue of the organization by the MTO(i.e.an intermodal service integrator and intermodal scheme decision-maker),is the best strategy for optimizing the cooperation of inland intermodal transport organizations.There are 57 Figures,38 tables and 162 references in the dissertation.