A set of ellipses, with given semi-major and semi-minor axes, is to be cut from a rectangular design plate, while minimizing the area of the design rectangle. The design plate is subject to lower and upper bounds of its widths and lengths; the ellipses are free of any orientation restrictions....

The optimal layout problem of circle group in a circular container with performance constraints of equilibrium belongs to a class of NP-hard problem. The key obstacle of solving this problem is the lack of an effective global optimization method. We convert the circular packing problem with...

The linear models for the approximate solution of the problem of packing the maximum number of equal circles of the given radius into a given closed bounded domain G are proposed. We construct a grid in G; the nodes of this grid form a finite set of points T, and it is assumed that the centers...

In the area of computer simulation, Latin hypercube designs play an important role. In this paper the classes of maximin and Audze-Eglais Latin hypercube designs are considered. Up to now only several two-dimensional designs and a few higher dimensional designs for these classes have been...

This paper attempts to evaluate and understand the port sector senior managers’ perception relative to the influence of the port characteristics and specific container terminals in customers’ satisfaction. The SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) methodology is used to confirm the...

Although the technical literature contains numerous efforts to simulate container terminal performance, little attention has been paid to setting up, calibrating and validating models for handling equipment activities. This paper presents results from the estimation of activity duration...

In any service market, the price/quality relationship is of main importance. In the container terminal handling market, quality is important in attracting and retaining customers. Meeting customer needs and delivering high quality for low costs are critical factors for terminals to be...

Congestion of trucks in port areas has created serious environmental and traffic problems in many countries. One of main reasons for congestion is the concentrated arrivals of road trucks at peak hours. A negotiation process for smoothing truck arrivals in peak hours among multiple trucking...