Ship traffic optimization method for solving the approach channel and lock co-scheduling problem of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River

Since the demands of waterway transport on the Yangzi River have been growing in recent years, traffic congestion at Three Gorges Dam (TGD) has become a very serious issue, which leads to long waiting time as well as environmental pollution. To improve the efficiency of the ship traffic scheduling, this paper investigates an approach channel and lock co-scheduling problem of the TGD on the Yangzi River. A new mathematical model is presented to optimize the lock chamber utilization rate, average waiting time and total energy consumption of ships, simultaneously. To solve this problem, a multi-objective metaheuristic algorithm (MOMA) based on fuzzy correlation entropy is proposed. In the algorithm, with a ship sequence encoding scheme, a pre-grouping panning approach is firstly designed for decoding. Then, a fitness evaluation mechanism using fuzzy correlation entropy is adopted to assess the solutions. Finally, an adaptive local reinforcement search strategy is introduced to improve local intensification ability. Various simulation experiments are carried out based on the real historical data at TGD. Computational results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of proposed MOMA. The result of this study is very useful for TGD to improve the ship traffic efficiency and save energy.