AN INCREMENTAL TIME-EXPANDED NETWORK FLOW MODEL,

A static flow network expanded over time to obtain dynamic flows essentially involves almost as many replications of the basic network as there are time periods in the time span of interest. Computer models of these expanded networks have required long run-times because of the excessively large network files. The paper describes the implementation of a method for decreasing the computer processing time by reusing the temporally repeated arc-chain patterns of a smaller expansion of the basic static flow network. The procedure decreases the processing time of a test network by approximately 85 as compared to the processing time required for the same network fully expanded over the time span of interest. Author