A simulated annealing algorithm based solution method for a green vehicle routing problem with fuel consumption

This chapter presents a new G-VRP model that aims to reduce the fuel consumption of the vehicle’s gas tank. The fuel consumption of a vehicle is related to total vehicle weight through route and thus, this changes the CO2 levels as a result of the changes of total weight and distance for any arc {i, j} in the route. To minimize CO2 levels, a simulated annealing-based algorithm is proposed. About the experiments, firstly, we applied small-VRP problem set for defining the proposed algorithm and then, the Christofides et al. (Combinatorial optimization. Wiley, 1979) small/medium scale C1–C14 datasets are used with proposed G-VRP model and a convex composition solution with two objective functions. The proposed methods are compared with statistical analysis techniques to explain the statistical significance of solutions. The procedures are also tested using additional examples previously analyzed in the literature. The result has shown good solutions for minimizing the emitted CO2 levels