Research on Speed Optimization of Inland Vessels Based on a Shuffled Frog-leaping Algorithm

Improving the efficiency of energy utilization and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a hot issue in the field of shipping. For inland vessels, speed optimization is an important method for energy efficiency improvement. Different from seagoing ships, the navigation environment has an important influence on the ship resistance when building the prediction model of main engine fuel consumption. The main influencing factors are channel depth, channel cross-sectional area, and wind speed. In this paper, considered the influence of various navigation environment factors, and combined with the Holtrop-Mennen method, a prediction model of inland vessel resistance has been established. Based on this model, combined with the ship-engine-propeller matching and the power-fuel consumption curve of the main engine, the prediction model of the main engine fuel consumption is established. The shuffled frog-leaping algorithm is used to optimize the speed with the minimum fuel consumption of a single voyage as the objective with constraints of the engine speed, ship speed, and total sailing time. Then, the route is divided into several segments based on geographical region. The simulation results show that the ship speed optimization is effective.