Solve train stowage planning problem of steel coil using a pointer-based discrete differential evolution

Train stowage planning problem of steel coil (TSPP) is to determine loading locations of the coils on train railcars, which is rarely studied, and an important optimisation problem in real iron and steel industry. In this paper, first, according to the actual situations of a steel products transportation department, the problem is formulated as an integer programming (IP) mathematical model in which multiple destination stations, varied stowing modes and different railcar types are considered. Then, on the basis of a general discrete optimisation algorithm framework, i.e. pointer-based discrete differential evolution (PDDE), a novel variant (T-PDDE) is proposed for effectively solving the TSPP. In particular, to deal with the issue of transformation between stowage plan and algorithm individual, a problem-based coding method is designed. To further enhance the algorithm performance, a double levels evolution strategy and an opposite-based local search are developed based on the features of problem. Finally, with the practical and simulative data, extensive comparison experiments are carried out to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The numerical results demonstrate the superiority of T-PDDE on solving TSPP.