Ship interaction in narrow water channels: A two-lane cellular automata approach

•A two-lane cellular automata model is proposed to investigate ship movement.•Ship interactions are considered when overtaking occurs.•Ship interactions lead to “lump” formation.

In narrow waterways, closed ships might interact due to hydrodynamic forces. To avoid clashes, different lane-changing rules are required. In this paper, a two-lane cellular automata model is proposed to investigate the traffic flow patterns in narrow water channels. Numerical experiments show that ship interaction can form “lumps” in traffic flow which will significantly depress the flux. We suggest that the lane-changing frequency of fast ships should be limited.