Presenting a mathematical location-routing model for the perishable products considering dependency of fuel consumption to the vehicle' loading

In recent years, considering perishable products in the cold supply chain, necessity of using alternative fuels in the distribution organizations vehicles and minimizing fuel consumption have great importance for designing distribution networks. The most important question in the distribution networks are locating depots and designing the most suitable routes for serving customers which are considered in the location-routing models. In this research, a location –routing problem model for a multi-product perishable food products distribution network in the cold supply chain with ability of refueling vehicles at fuel stations has been studied. As the issue relates to a fuel consumption model as variable and dependent on the loaded between vertices and in terms of product corruption in the distribution process by utilizing an unusual fuel fleet to reduce carbon dioxide production, an integer linear programming model has been formulated. The models are validated by numerical solution in GAMS software and due to complexity of the problem in the medium and large dimensions, metaheuristic algorithm has been tested to solve problems of real size with acceptable computational time and its efficiency.