A trial application of FSA methodology to the hatchway watertight integrity of bulk carriers

Formal safety assessment (FSA) is a formal, structured and systematic methodology, aimed at enhancing maritime safety, including protection of life, property and marine environment, by using risk and cost–benefit assessments. For the application of this methodology to the rule-making process, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) presented the Interim Guidelines, which describe procedures of FSA and inputs/outputs of each procedure in detail. This paper basically deals with an application of FSA methodology according to the IMO's Interim Guidelines to the hatchway watertight integrity of bulk carriers, which was carried out as a cooperative research between Korean Register of Shipping and Seoul National University. As results of this application study, 18 hazards are identified and 32 risk control measures are devised to reduce the associated risks. Potential risks, costs and benefits when some Risk Control Options are introduced are evaluated in monetary unit of US $. Finally, some discussions and recommendations based on experiences are also given for both future work and better application of this FSA methodology to the rule-making process.     

Perspectives on railway track geometry condition monitoring from in-service railway vehicles

This paper presents a view of the current state of monitoring track geometry condition from in-service vehicles. It considers technology used to provide condition monitoring; some issues of processing and the determination of location; how things have evolved over the past decade; and what is being, or could/should be done in future research. Monitoring railway track geometry from an in-service vehicle is an attractive proposition that has become a reality in the past decade. However, this is only the beginning. Seeing the same track over and over again provides an opportunity for observing track geometry degradation that can potentially be used to inform maintenance decisions. Furthermore, it is possible to extend the use of track condition information to identify if maintenance is effective, and to monitor the degradation of individual faults such as dipped joints. There are full unattended track geometry measurement systems running on in-service vehicles in the UK and elsewhere around the world, feeding their geometry measurements into large databases. These data can be retrieved, but little is currently done with the data other than the generation of reports of track geometry that exceeds predefined thresholds. There are examples of simpler systems that measure some track geometry parameters more or less directly and accurately, but forego parameters such as gauge. Additionally, there are experimental systems that use mathematics and models to infer track geometry using data from sensors placed on an in-service vehicle. Finally, there are systems that do not claim to measure track geometry, but monitor some other quantity such as ride quality or bogie acceleration to infer poor track geometry without explicitly measuring it.     

Modelling cyclic container freight index using system dynamics

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the cyclical nature of container shipping market represented by a containerized freight index and proposes a predictive cyclical model of the market. In contrast to the traditional spectral analysis (univariate), system dynamics reflect the drivers of the market in both supply and demand side, and therefore, it is a multi-variate system equilibrium approach consisting of various causal spillovers from sub-components of the market. This study is the first to analyze the cycle of container market using system dynamics. By utilizing system dynamics cyclicality approach, one-step ahead predictions are generated for monthly containerized freight index and compared to conventional benchmarks for post-sample validation. Our study can also help policymakers and shipping liners for better management and invest timing of container ship.     

Comparative analysis of port competency requirements in Vietnam and Korea

ABSTRACT

Much research has been conducted recently on the changing role of ports in the context of international logistics and supply chain management focusing on issues such as port efficiency and competitiveness. However, little research has been found on the critical aspect that contributes to making a port efficient and effective, especially, in the new era: the port human capital. As seaports play a critical role in the supply chain, it is thus important that the port personnel possess necessary competencies to contribute to port efficiency and turn the port into an effective supply chain partner. In this paper, this research issue is explored through a conceptual model of competencies and validated empirically by a survey with port executives in Vietnam and Korea. As a result, important managerial insights are drawn to the design and implementation of human resource development policy for ports.     

Modelling port choice in an uncertain environment

Port choice is an important issue to be investigated to ensure the effective integration of container supply chains and the sustainable development of regional economy. The selection of appropriate ports to facilitate shipping activities and international trade is crucial for many stakeholders, including shipping lines, port administrators, cargo shippers and national governments. The task is essentially a process of multiple criterion decision-making (MCDM) under uncertainty, requiring analysts to derive rational decisions from uncertain and incomplete data related to different quantitative and qualitative determinants. This paper aims at proposing a new conceptual port choice method by explaining the role fuzzy logic in evidential reasoning in a complementary way, in which various forms of raw data (either objective or subjective) collected to evaluate port performance can first be converted into and presented as fuzzy grades defined using linguistics terms with degrees of belief (DoBs) and second be combined using evidential reasoning to produce a port choice preference score. The method is applied to analyse the selection of major Northeast Asian (NEA) container ports from a shipping line’s perspective. The outcome, a port choice preference score, is calculated using evidential reasoning to directly synthesize the true estimation of the port with respect to each criterion and therefore, unlike a relative ranking index, keeps the ‘goodness’ of port evaluation, capable of benchmarking a specific port’s performance and monitoring the increase of its competitiveness in a longitude study with respect to an individual criterion or all the criteria as a whole.     

An Application of the Hierarchical Fuzzy Process to Container Port Competition: Policy and Strategic Implications

This paper aims to empirically identify the competitiveness of container ports in Asia by examining factors influencing the perceived competitive edge of each port using the Hierarchical Fuzzy Process, a method embracing human knowledge and/or judgement into a mathematical framework. This analysis is unique in that the ‘human-perceived’ competitiveness on Asian container ports is examined under the quantifiable framework. The findings reveal that Singapore is the most competitive port among the sampled ports. Moreover, the methodology employed here shows the potential to be applicable to other transport and logistics related service industries.     

Cruise port centrality and spatial patterns of cruise shipping in the Asian market

This paper investigates the centrality of cruise ports in the Asian cruise shipping market while proposing the hubs and authorities centrality (HACC) metric as a directional synthesis of the hubs centrality and authorities centrality to explore cyclical and directional features of centrality in the cruise shipping network. With the development of the cruise shipping industry, research has been actively conducted with a particular focus on identifying the characteristics of hub ports. This paper employs social network analysis to investigate the HACC which is originally developed for analyzing the cruise port centrality problem. Empirical study implies that Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Penang, Phuket, Port Klang, Shanghai, and Singapore (in alphabetical order) reflects particulars of cruise hub ports. One of the exceptional results of this paper is Ho Chi Minh City, Penang, Phuket, and Port Klang have demonstrated high HACC (refers to hub ports) while limited degree and betweenness centrality. In contrast, Busan and Keelung are not classified as hub ports.     

A two‐leveled multi‐objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm for the hub and spoke location problem

We consider a hub and spoke location problem (HSLP) with multiple scenarios. The HSLP consists of four subproblems: hub location, spoke location, spoke allocation, and customer allocation Under multiple scenarios, we aim to provide a set of well‐distributed solutions, close to the true Pareto optimal solutions, for decision makers. We present a novel multi‐objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm to solve the HSLP under multiple scenarios. The algorithm is modeled as a two‐leveled structure, which we call the two‐leveled multi‐objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm (TMSEA). In TMSEA, two main processes imitating symbiotic evolution and endosymbiotic evolution are introduced to promote the diversity and convergence of solutions. The evolutionary components suitable for each sub‐problem are defined. TMSEA is tested on a variety of test‐bed problems and compared with existing multi‐objective evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results show that TMSEA is promising in solution convergence and diversity.     

Capacity estimation of torque converters with piston holes using the response surface method and an artificial neural network

In new slim torque converters, lock-up clutches are used to provide high fuel efficiency at low speed. However, the slimness of the converters causes difficulty in heat dissipation, which may damage the friction material and shorten its life span. A cooling hole in the lock-up piston reduces the heat but also reduces the torque because oil flows through the hole due to the pressure difference between the two faces of the piston. In the early stages of the development of this type of torque converter, designers must consider the minimum flow rate required to cool the friction material and the minimum torque capacity required to transmit the engine torque. This research explored two methods of estimating these parameters. In the first method, an estimation equation was derived by combining the response surface method with physical properties such as the centrifugal force, a sudden expansion, a sudden contraction, and the steady flow energy equation. The second method involved the use of an artificial neural network. The feasibility of the estimates based on statistics and on the artificial neural network were confirmed in the design stage by comparing experimental and estimated data. An estimation program was created using the C#.Net language and has been used for actual torque converter designs by the Korea Powertrain Company.