3D container yard: how many floors high?
The yard must accommodate 180 containers of imported goods on a land area of only 1,300 m². The cargo owner does not come to pick up in the order of unloading: the container that needs to be picked up or is located under another container, the crane must lift the ones above to the next stack first, called rehandling. You choose how many floors to stack and how many RTG cranes to run. The goal: fit the land, pick up the goods in 20 minutes, with the least amount of cranes.
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Game rules
- Select number of floors (2–6) and RTG crane number (1–3), click Start shift.
- Each flight has 6 rows; The number of usable cells per flight is 6 × the number of floors minus (number of floors − 1) the cells left empty to leave room for rehandling. The number of flights is calculated automatically to have 180 containers.
- In 3 hours, 90 trucks arrived, each truck picked up a container in a random but fixed order. Each RTG is in charge of a section of the yard.
- Three stars: fits the lot and the car is in the lot for an average of no more than 20 minutes, with the least RTG. Two stars: meets both conditions. One star: achieve one.
How to read the results
- High stacking saves land: from 2 to 5 floors, the yard block needs less than half the area.
- But high stacking increases rehandling: the container that needs to be picked up is often crushed. Each turn is a lift without delivering anything to the waiting vehicle.
- Land and equipment trade for each other. If you want to stack high without the vehicle waiting for a long time, you must add a crane; If you want less cranes, you need more land.
- Vehicles waiting in the yard increased rapidly when the crane was full: adding an additional layer can push the vehicle's time from on time to completely late.
How is the model calculated?
Each bay is 6.5 m long (container 20 feet), each row is 2.5 m wide, plus 12 m lanes. Each crane lift (rehandling or delivery to the vehicle) takes 95 seconds; Crane runs along the yard at 1.2 m/sec; The car takes 1 minute to enter and exit the yard gate. Island containers are placed on the lowest stack and flown together. There is no random element that changes between plays.
Not calculated: Rearrange the yard at night (island first), schedule pick-up time, 40-foot container, export goods arranged by ship. The parameters are illustrative assumptions, not the norms of any port.
⚖️ The model is a cube illustrating a common container yard, not based on any port, yard or business; The in-game figures are the result of the above assumptions and are not intended as design norms. Model built using Three.js library (MIT license).
Frequently asked questions
How many floors high is reasonable to stack a container?
High stacking saves land but increases rehandling when the truck comes to pick up the container below. The appropriate level depends on the land, the number of cranes and how the shipper picks up the goods — the simulation shows that trade-off on a sample yard block.
Have real project parameters? Send them to CGD and get feedback on the design scope
This simulation stops at the principle. For a specific project, CGD builds the model on real operating data and floor plan drawings.
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