Researching Barge Fleet Standard Formation In The Upstream Of Yangtze River

In recent years, with the launching of the regulation and effective maintenance works in the middle and downstream of Yangtze River channel, the barge fleet transportation has been replaced by motor vessel and gradually disappeared in this route. In the upstream of Yangtze River, because of the complex conditions of route; limitation of scale in draft and navigation lock, the motor vessel can’t be freed navigate in this region due to its own size, so barge fleet play an important role due to its shallow draft and flexible size.But the formulation of structure of barge fleet in the upstream of Yangtze River is confusing, most are used to shuttle top or font top ordinary barge tied to drag technology, the size of barge fleet is very small. There isn’t having any standard formation for barge fleet. So researching barge fleet standard formation has great an significant role in improving the level of barge technology; optimizing the structure of the barge fleet; taking use of navigation lock facilities and promoting the sustainable development of the Yangtze River shipping.Firstly, this essay has divided the upstream of Yangtze River into two segments of Yibin-Chongqing route and Chongqing-Yichang route due to its navigable condition and the location of water conservancy facilities. Then taking full consideration of channel depth limitation and lock scale limitation, this essay establish different valuable formation program for each two route. Secondly, this essay has established the relationship between resistance and speed; thrust and speed to determine the optimum operating speed of the question program. Finally this essay does economic analysis and takes the use of IDS to evaluate index value of all programs. The result of economic analysis shows that barge fleet transportation is more economical and efficient than traditional bulk vessel transportation. The result of IDS shows that there is five barge fleet standard formation programs for the section of Yibin-Chongqing and ten barge fleet standard formation programs for the section of Chongqing-Yichang.