As the container traffic at the Port of Savannah is expected to increase, its impacts need to be evaluated to address major concerns regarding the roadway network surrounding the port and the overall operations of the port. A federation of two disparate simulators was created in order to model the impacts of increased container traffic. The Port of Savannah was modeled using Rockwell Arena© and the surrounding roadway network was modeled using PTV VISSIM©. These two simulators operated concurrently and continually provided feedback with one another. The challenges that arose from this combination were largely due to the time structure of the models. Arena© is a discrete event simulator and VISSIM© is a continuous traffic simulator. A basic model, where these two pieces of software could pass information between one another, was initially created as a test bed for methods required to federate the two models. These basic concepts were then applied to a comprehensive model of the Port of Savannah and the surrounding area. This federated modeling approach for the Port of Savannah allowed the analysis to reflect the interaction of behaviors unique to the port and local roadway network. For instance, the federated model successfully captured how delays at the Port of Savannah increased as a result of increased congestion in the surrounding roadway network. It is anticipated that this prototypal model will be a base for future research into the area of federating disparate transportation simulators, as well as aid in the further exploration of a transportation run-time interface.

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Hunter, Michael; Committee Member: Laval, Jorge; Committee Member: Rodgers, Michael. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.