• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.92-100
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• 2009

Today international trade through maritime transportation is significantly increasing. Due to this increase, shipping companies are faced with problems concerning the repositioning of empty containers from import dominant ports. The liner shipping service network has been provided to transport containers which load customers' freights. Container ships are moved on the liner shipping service network by observing the predetermined route and transportation time. This research deals with the empty containers distribution problem considering the container ship route. A mathematical model based on the mixed integer program has been introduced in this study. The objective is to minimize the total relevant costs of empty containers such as handling, leasing, and inventory holding, etc. Due to the complexity of the problem, a genetic algorithm has been suggested to solve large sized problems within a reasonable time. Numerical experiments have been conducted to show the efficiency of the genetic algorithm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.87-95
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• 2004

Economic development is remarkable in Asia and progress of industrialization of NIES, ASEAN, and China in East Asia has increased the international physical distribution in this area. However, an imbalance of trade becomes severe in these areas. The imbalance is especially big in the Asia-North America route and the Japan-China route. The imbalance in the Asia -North America liner route is 5.04 million TEUS in 2002.The transportation ratio of loaded containers between China and Japan route is approximately 3:1 in 2000. In other words, it means that the transportation of loaded containers from China to Japan is 3, the transportation of loaded containers from Japan to China is I. The imbalance at a port is generally obtained by subtracting export loaded container cargo volume from import container cargo volume. However, the imbalance and the empty containers at the port are not always same. Then, in order to evaluate rationalization and efficiency of maritime container transportation, we introduce the amount of empty containers at a port as an evaluation index. However, the past data of the amount of handling empty containers have a lot of lacking portions. Then, it is necessary to estimate the past amount of empty containers in order to grasp the amount of empty containers historically. So, we construct the model that estimates the amount of empty containers using the imbalance of main port statistics in Japan.

• IE interfaces
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2010

Containers are commonly used as an effective and relatively inexpensive method for transporting goods. Unfortunately, there are often imbalances between the number of import and export containers, and some ports have a surplus of empty containers while others have a deficit. The Empty Container Simulation Game was developed to address these problems. The game is a computer role playing simulation that simulates the distribution of empty containers in order to solve empty container imbalances among ports. An optimal solution is obtained by the computer using linear programming (LP). Upon completion of the game, a player's game results are displayed along with the LP solution. The game interface was designed to provide easy access and operation. This game will serve to provide an easy understanding and planning for empty container management.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.185-186
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• 2009

According to increase of container transportation, demands of empty container handling has been increasing, so research of empty container has been studied steadily. However, the handling of containers and empty containers is not handled simultaneously. Moreover, as Korean ICD(Inland Container Depot) and ODCY(Off-Dock Container Yard), the inland depot in many environments, relocation research due to demand of empty container has not been studied sufficiently. This paper formulates and analyzes logical mathematical relocation model according to demands of empty container which are required in container terminal, ICD, and ODCY as cargo depots. This paper also aims to help reduce cost by improving q current empty container relocation as same as the past procedure.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 2018

If empty containers from multiple shipping liners are mixed together in the same bay, then the space utilization increases; however, the expected number of re-handles also increases. Formulas for estimating the expected number of re-handles are derived for various storage strategies and two types of handling equipment. The expected number of re-handles is compared, through numerical experiments, among those cases. The results of the numerical experiments are used to analyze the change in the number of expected re-handles according to the change in the retrieval ratio and repair ratio. The impacts of the change in the bay size and the distribution of the storage and retrieval ratio of containers among multiple vessel liners on the expected number of re-handles are analyzed. It is necessary to study efficient operational strategies considering the expected number of re-handles for empty containers.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.145-158
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• 2015

Disposable marine product packaging materials such as wooden, Styrofoam, and corrugated cardboard boxes have a very low reuse rate, thus causing the logistics costs to rise and making it difficult to establish a unit load system for marine products. Disposable packing containers to be discarded are accompanied by resource and environmental issues home and abroad. Transportation vehicles for marine products have to return empty without loading different kinds of products after delivery due to the smell and properties of marine products, thus posing as an obstacle to logistics rationalization. In an effort to overcome those limitations, this study examined the stages of transportation including "producer-wholesale market in the producing area-commission merchant-wholesale market in the consumption area-commission merchant-quasi-wholesale market-consumer" and also analyzed the utilization and distribution of disposable packaging materials currently used in the circulation of marine products including wooden, Styrofoam, and corrugated cardboard boxes. Based on the analysis results, the investigator developed a logistics rationalization model capable of promoting semi-permanent reuse and lowering empty vehicle rate on return routes as an alternative to address environmental issues caused by disposable packaging materials, which have been an obstacle to the logistics rationalization of marine products, packaging costs in the process of repeating packing and unpacking at each stage of marine products circulation, and empty vehicle rates on return routes after marine products delivery.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.900-904
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• 2002

The duration of spatial memory in cattle is potentially important for grazing management. The ability of livestock to remember the location of food patches may lead to uneven range use. In this experiment, how long cattle are able to remember food locations was determined. Six steers were used to conduct this study in a pasture with an 8 row by 8 column grid of 64 plastic containers 5 meters apart. Four randomly chosen containers were loaded with feed pellets. All steers were trained to find the loaded locations until a minimum of empty containers were visited. After this initial training, each steer was tested at 5, 10, 20 and 48 days post-training. Total number of visits (TV), number of containers visited (NC), the ratio of loaded containers (LC) to NC were recorded. Once the steers learned the locations of loaded containers NC did not increase with time since last training up to 48 days (p>0.05). Logarithmic transformation of NC (LNC) was 0.70 and 0.80 for the control and 48 day treatments, respectively. Steers were equally efficient in locating containers with feed. The steers also showed that their ability in locating food was much better than expected by chance (Z>1.62). Findings of the present study do not suggest using spatial memory decay as a tool to promote better grazing distribution. Because steers remembered food locations accurately for at least 48 days.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.833-843
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• 2016

Recently, in the field of rail freight transportation, the number of trains dedicated for shippers has been increasing. These dedicated trains, which run on the basis of a contract with shippers, had been restricted to the transportation of containers, or so called block trains. Nowadays, such commodities have extended to cement, hard coal, etc. Most full freight cars are transported by dedicated trains. But, for empty car distribution, the efficiency still remains questionable because the distribution plan is manually developed by dispatchers. In this study, we investigated distribution models delineated in the KTOCS system which was developed by KORAIL as well as mathematical models considered in the state-of-the-art. The models are based on optimization models, especially the network flow model. Here we suggest a new optimization model with a framework of the column generation approach. The master problem can be formulated into a transportation problem with additional constraints. The master problem is improved by adding a new edge between the supply node and the demand node; this edge can be found using a simple shorted path in the time-space network. Finally, we applied our algorithm to the Korean freight train network and were able to find the total number of empty car kilometers decreased.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.483-493
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• 2020

Large cylindrical floating-roof tanks, constructed as oil containers, are usually distributed regularly in open area and easily exposed to severe wind loads. However, wind pressures around these grouped squat tanks appear to have not been clearly given in design codes or thoroughly studied in existing researches. This paper conducts a detailed investigation on wind loads on the external wall of a four-tank group in square arrangement. To achieve that, wind tunnel tests are carried out on both empty and full tank groups, considering various wind angles and spacing. Results show that 3 regions in elevation can be identified on the tank shell according to the circumferential wind pressure distribution. The upper 2 regions cover a relatively small portion of the shell where excessive negative pressures are spotted, setting an alarm to the design of the top angle and stiffening rings. By comparing results on grouped tanks to those on an isolated tank, grouping effects concerning wind angle, tank position in group and spacing are discussed. Deviations on pressure distributions that will compromise structural safety are outlined, including the increase of negative pressures, the shift of maximum pressure locations as well as the change of positive pressure range. And, several potentially unfavourable wind pressure distributions are selected for further analyses.