A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions

Zhang, Fangwei; Ding, Lu; Jiang, Jun; Kong, Fanyi; Liu, Xiaoyu

doi:10.3390/math13162690

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A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions

by

Fangwei Zhang

^1,*,

Lu Ding

²,

Jun Jiang

²,

Fanyi Kong

² and

Xiaoyu Liu

²

¹

College of International Business, Shandong Jiaotong University, Weihai 264210, China

²

College of Navigation and Shipping, Shandong Jiaotong University, Weihai 264210, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Mathematics 2025, 13(16), 2690; https://doi.org/10.3390/math13162690

Submission received: 21 July 2025 / Revised: 11 August 2025 / Accepted: 18 August 2025 / Published: 21 August 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Criteria Decision-Making and Operations Research)

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Abstract

With the increasing demand for hazardous materials (hazmat) from enterprises, port chemical industrial parks face growing risks in hazardous material transportation. By using internal road network information of parks, this study investigates the hazmat vehicle routing problem (HVRP) under different road conditions, with a bi-objective of minimizing total transportation risk and cost. The two main innovations are as follows. First, according to the grid-like road conditions in parks, the research scope of transportation segments of hazmat vehicles is divided into straight segments and curved segments. Second, the potential affected area of an accident is defined as a type of geometric shape associated with a series of factors refined from transportation situations. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage ant colony optimization (TSACO) algorithm is verified through one instance using field data from a real port chemical industry park, and twelve instances from the classical capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) resource.

Keywords: hazardous materials vehicle routing problem; port chemical industrial park; multi-objective optimization; ant colony optimization algorithm; pheromone update mechanism

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MDPI and ACS Style

Zhang, F.; Ding, L.; Jiang, J.; Kong, F.; Liu, X. A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions. Mathematics 2025, 13, 2690. https://doi.org/10.3390/math13162690

AMA Style

Zhang F, Ding L, Jiang J, Kong F, Liu X. A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions. Mathematics. 2025; 13(16):2690. https://doi.org/10.3390/math13162690

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhang, Fangwei, Lu Ding, Jun Jiang, Fanyi Kong, and Xiaoyu Liu. 2025. "A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions" Mathematics 13, no. 16: 2690. https://doi.org/10.3390/math13162690

APA Style

Zhang, F., Ding, L., Jiang, J., Kong, F., & Liu, X. (2025). A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions. Mathematics, 13(16), 2690. https://doi.org/10.3390/math13162690

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A Novel Optimization Method and Its Application for Hazardous Materials Vehicle Routing Problem Under Different Road Conditions

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