Simulation Analysis of the Ohio River Waterway Transportation System

摘要

Inland waterway transportation is a vital part of commerce, providing an economic and alternative means of moving freight, and utilizing waterways has benefits of reducing road traffic congestion and air pollution. This paper describes a simulation study of modeling the traffic flows of barges transporting bulk commodities and operating among the nine ports on the Ohio River where locks limit the number of barges passing through them, incurring delays. A discrete event simulation model is developed using Arena software to estimate performance measures such as lock utilization and barge waiting time. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses with various demand and waiting time threshold scenarios are conducted. The goal of this study is to evaluate the current capacity level of the Ohio River waterway transportation system, and to assess its feasibility to meet increasing barge traffic demand in the future.