Problem domain
Inland shipping is a sector in which the ships are highly standardized; they are typically adjusted to the dimensions of locks and waterways. However, in light of the expected future development of inland waterway transport and the low water levels that occur on the major rivers with increasing frequency and duration, it is unlikely that these standard ships are the optimal ships for the transport chains they operate in.
Goal
The goal of the research is to allow determination of which ship dimensions result in the most efficient ship within a given transport chain, i.e. the ship that is able to operate at the lowest required ship rate and that results in the lowest generalized cost for the shipper (the shipowner’s customer)
Approach
The knowledge about the technical characteristics of non-standard inland ships is very limited, as is the knowledge of their building and operating costs. As a result of this, it is not possible to determine the optimal main dimensions of a ship. In the research the gap in knowledge about the technical characteristics, building cost and operating costs of inland ships is closed to a sufficient extent to allow determination of these optimal main dimensions. This is done by generating large series of conceptual ship designs with systematically varied main dimensions. Each of these designs is assessed in a transport chain-specific cost model to determine which main dimensions are optimal. Furthermore the series of ship designs are used to generate rules of thumb for the determination of the steel weight, lightweight and building cost of inland ships
Results
The research yields knowledge about the required ship rate and optimal dimensions of an inland ship as a function of sailing distance, water depth, ship type and transport chain-specific factors as well as rules of thumb for the estimation of the steel weight, lightweight and building cost of inland ships.
Contact Robert Hekkenberg