Vibration and acceleration levels of multimodal container shipping physical environment

摘要

In global supply chains, multimodal transportation plays a dominant role in worldwide shipping. The rail, truck, and vessel combination is the most commonly used mode for non-time sensitive shipments between continents. This study focused on measuring the transportation environment effects (vibration and acceleration levels) in 40-foot ISO container shipments using multiple modes of transport, originating in Hungary and destined for Mexico, India, and China over several weeks. The study also measured multimodal shipping routes without vessel transportation to China over Trans-Siberian and Trans-Manchurian railway lines. The transshipments and handling events in container hubs and terminals were separately analyzed. The results show the comparison of vibration intensity (in PSD) of different route conditions between various continents, and the possibility of acceleration levels during transshipments and handling events. The measured data show that extreme acceleration levels in vertical direction (9.37 G) occur while containers are handled in a seaport, and in lateral (4.45 G) and longitudinal (5.55 G) directions while they are transshipped by truck to rail container terminals. The rail vibration levels in Russia and China showed a lower intensity in the frequency range of 1 to 15 Hz, and higher between 15 and 200 Hz than in Europe; the lowest vibration levels occurred when the containers traveled on the sea, and truck vibration levels were very similar to previous research and ISTA protocols.