Title: A deterministic annealing algorithm for the pre- and end-haulage of intermodal container terminals

Authors: An Caris, Gerrit K. Janssens

Addresses: Transportation Research Institute, Hasselt University – Campus Diepenbeek, Wetenschapspark 5 – Bus 6, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium. ' Transportation Research Institute, Hasselt University – Campus Diepenbeek, Wetenschapspark 5 – Bus 6, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium

Abstract: The drayage of containers in the service area of an intermodal barge terminal is modelled as a full truckload pickup and delivery problem with time windows (FTPDPTW). Initial solutions are generated with an insertion heuristic and improved with three local search operators. In a post-optimisation phase, the three search operators are integrated in a deterministic annealing (DA) framework. The mechanism of the heuristic procedures is demonstrated with a numerical example. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the DA algorithm is robust with respect to variations in threshold value and quality of the initial solution.

Keywords: intermodal transportation; pre-haulage; end-haulage; container transport; pickup and delivery problem; PDP; full truckload; metaheuristics; local search operators; deterministic annealing; container terminals; barge terminals; post optimisation; time windows.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2010.035390

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2010 Vol.2 No.4, pp.340 - 355

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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