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Discretization and Validation of the Continuum Approximation Scheme for Terminal System Design

Institute of Transportation Studies and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
Institute of Transportation Studies and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
yfouyang{at}berkeley.edu
daganzo{at}ce.berkeley.edu

This paper proposes an algorithm that automatically translates the "continuum approximation" (CA) recipes for location problems into discrete designs. It applies to terminal systems, but can also be used for other logistics problems. The study also systematically compares the logistics costs predicted by the CA approach with the actual costs for discrete designs obtained with the automated procedure. The predictions are quite accurate. The paper also gives conditions under which the discrete solution has a small optimality gap.

Key Words: terminal design; continuum approximation
History: Received: October 2003; revised: July 2004; accepted: November 2004.