Assessment of Port Marine Operations Performance by Means of Simulation. Case study: The Port of Jebel Dhanna/Ruwais – UAE

The assessment of port marine operations performance by means of simulation is treated in this master thesis project. The navigational services provided to vessel at the access channels, from their arrival to the berthing operations and from unberthing to vessels departure, are investigated and evaluated. In the case study, FlexSim is used as the simulation tool. Since no previous marine operations performance assessment using FlexSim were found in literature, its application for this purpose is tested and evaluated. From the literature review, it is concluded that despite the fact that the use of logistic simulation models is increasing, and many practical applications are identified, the number of publications and academic studies is still limited. By describing extensively the methods used in this graduation project, it is expected that though a case study is analysed, the given research approach can be adapted and harnessed in other problems with similar aims. Case Study - The Port of Jebel Dhanna/Ruwais The production of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is expected to increase and new terminals are planned at the Port of Jebel Dhanna/Ruwais in order to cope with this progress. The marine traffic is expected to be almost doubled from 2014 to 2030. The approach channels to the port are relatively long and occasionally limited in width and depth. Some sections are restricted to one-way traffic and priority is given to outgoing vessels. Additionally, tidal windows are imposed to deep draught vessels in depth restricted sections. With the expected increase in marine traffic, it is possible that congestion of the access channel will become a limiting factor. The evolution of the Port of Jebel Dhanna/Ruwais marine operations performance from 2014 to 2030 is evaluated based on FlexSim results. The conclusion is that performance is acceptable for the forecasted 2030 traffic and no real bottleneck at the access channels is identified; the berth unavailability is the main cause of delay. In order to be able to identify the marine operations bottleneck, the traffic is artificially increased. For the simulated fleet mix, the performance of the marine operations reaches an unacceptable level when 900 vessels per year are added to the 2030 forecast. The existing infrastructure is unable to cope with the demand when 1200 vessels per year are added to the 2030 forecast. In order to make it possible for the port to handle these 1200 extra vessels, three interventions are proposed: routing three vessel classes instead of one through a secondary channel; deepening one of the one-way sections; and widening one of the one-way sections. Six measures, formed by the combination of the three interventions are simulated. The most effective measure is the combination of the three of them; however, each measure has a different cost related to it; therefore, only a cost benefit analysis can indicate the best alternative. FlexSim Evaluation After performing all simulations involved in the graduation work, the FlexSim simulation software is considered to be adequate to perform port marine operations simulations. Realistic results are obtained with more than acceptable simulation times and with a moderate time for implementation, which decreases with the modeller increasing experience. However, the possibility of using default FlexSim functions for implementing the traffic regulations would be appreciated.Ports and WaterwaysHydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience