Abstract
Within the car manufacturing value chain, the costs of transport and logistics have an important contribution to the final price of the vehicle. It is estimated that around 70 % of a vehicle cost is represented by the costs involved in the logistics, starting from the transport of raw materials up to the delivery of the finite product to the customer. The fundamental approach in controlling the prices is the optimization of the flow of components, systems and finite cars. The transport and logistics networks include hubs and terminals connected with multimodal transport means.
The Constructal Theory has been developed from fundamental minimal path and maximal access approaches using entropy minimization methods offering a robust theoretical background for optimization methods. The paper presents the results of research activities carried out on a possible approach for using the Constructal Theory as a method for optimization of the flows within a container terminal. The flows of components are modeled using fluid analogy and the optimization algorithms are developed using the standard Navier-Stokes equations. By imposing the minimal entropy generation as the objective function, there are obtained the optimal flow paths.
Keywords: Constructal Theory, transport, optimization, minimization of entropy