Exact and heuristic methods to solve the berth allocation problem in bulk ports

• We model and solve the dynamic hybrid berth allocation problem in bulk ports.
• The objective is to minimize the service times of vessels for a given yard layout.
• We present two alternative exact methods and a metaheuristic to solve the problem.
• Algorithms are tested based on instances inspired from real bulk port data.
• We find that near-optimal solutions can be obtained for even larger instances.

In this paper, we study the dynamic hybrid berth allocation problem in bulk ports with the objective to minimize the total service times of the vessels. We propose two exact methods based on mixed integer programming and generalized set partitioning, and a heuristic method based on squeaky wheel optimization, explicitly considering the cargo type on the vessel. The formulations are compared through extensive numerical experiments based on instances inspired from real bulk port data. The results indicate that the set partitioning method and the heuristic method can be used to obtain near-optimal solutions for even larger problem size.