APPLICATION OF THE GRAPH THEORY, AHP METHOD AND COST BENEFITS ANALYSIS FOR ROUTE SELECTION OF A ROAD TRAIN

摘要

A three-phase model for selection of the route of a road train has been applied in the study. The first phase determines the movement of road trains on a motorway with minimum fuel consumption by optimising the technical and operational parameters. The graph theory was applied in the modelling. The decision approach adopted in the second phase uses a multi-criteria analysis. The method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed for route prioritisation. The criteria for evaluation have been selected so as to take account of the characteristics of the road, the throughput of the road and convenience in travel. The research elaborates on the three main criteria and nine sub-criteria of choosing the route. The third phase includes a route selection by cost/benefit ratio where the cost of each route is determined through the optimisation of the fuel consumption in the first phase and the benefits determined by AHP method in the second phase. The decision approach proposed in this paper was tested for route selection between four alternatives for the road network in Bulgaria. The proposed model can help transport managers to manage the effectiveness of the movement of vehicles.