The transportation phase of solid waste management is highly critical as it may constitute approximately 60 to 75 percent of the total cost. Therefore, even a small amount of improvement in the collection operation can result in a significant saving in the overall cost. Despite the fact that there exist a considerable amount of studies on Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), a vast majority of the existing studies are not integrated with GIS and hence they do not consider the path constraints of real road networks for waste collection such as one-way roads and U-Turns. This study involves the development of computer software that optimizes the waste collection routes for solid waste transportation considering the path constraints and road gradients. In this study, two different routing models are proposed. The aim of the first model is to minimize the total distance travelled whereas that of the second model is to minimize the total fuel consumption that depends on the loading conditions of the truck and the road gradient. A comparison is made between these two approaches. It is expected that the two approaches generate routes having different characteristics. The obtained results are satisfactory. The distance optimization model generates routes that are shorter in length whereas the fuel consumption optimization model generates routes that are slightly higher in length but provides waste collection on steeply inclined roads with lower truck load. The resultant routes are demonstrated on a 3D terrain view.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612942/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 December 2010 |
| Creators | Uskay, Selim Onur |
| Contributors | Aksoy, Aysegul |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for METU campus |
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