Modeling of a Coal Transshipment Complex Based on a Queuing Network

Abstract

This article concerns the problem of estimating the throughput and forecasting the operation of a coal transshipment complex that comprises a marine coal terminal and a railway station. Scenario modeling is employed to address this issue. The mathematical model of the transshipment complex has the form of a queuing network, which allows us to take into account the impact of random factors on the arrival of trains and departure of vessels from the system and their handling. In the model, we use the batch marked Markovian arrival process (BMMAP), which allows for the batch arrival of several types of requests, to describe the arrival of different categories of trains. Various queuing systems model particular structural elements of the complex to consider peculiarities of their work. We investigate the coal transshipment complex, which includes one of the largest and most modern coal export terminals in Russia. Based on the results of a numerical study, we estimate its current and maximum throughput, find bottlenecks in the system structure, and forecast its performance after the planned modernization. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of the model presented and its potential extension.

Keywords

• mathematical model
• queuing theory
• bulk terminal
• traffic flow
• simulation
• computational experiment