IMPROVING THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF CONTAINER STACK ASSEMBLY-DISASSEMBLY OPERATIONS AT CONTAINER TERMINAL YARD

Container storage in the yard decouples fluctuating incoming and outgoing container flows on container terminals and is an important element of the terminal process chain. The efficiency of handling operations in storage area, such as stacking and extraction of containers, has a significant influence on the overall terminal performance. In this respect, optimization of these processes, such as minimization of numerous unproductive movements of surrounding containers, which impede their immediate accessibility, is of particular interest. The relevant problems are well developed in mathematical terms. Optimizing algorithms mainly involve the use of heuristic/hyper-heuristic rules. However, only a small amount of this work focuses on the energy aspect of this problem. This article focuses on the most general approaches to minimizing energy consumption in container stacking operations. The performed analysis of energy consumption of the yard RTG crane for different working movements showed the prevalence of energy consumption when lifting containers. In this regard, attention is drawn to the importance of including in the optimization analysis in addition to the process of retrieving containers from the stack - the process of stack formation. Minimizing the level of the stack's center of gravity just before disassembling can be considered as a goal. Due to the complexity of the problem, an attempt to simplify the rules of container placement is made, taking into account some features of the energy approach. A possible generalized version of the arrangement scheme and the rule of removal of all containers are considered.