Modeling and Managing Separation for Noise Abatement Arrival Procedures

186 Pages·2006·2.18 MB·English

Modeling and Managing Separation for Noise Abatement
Arrival Procedures
by
Liling Ren
M.S. Aerospace Engineering
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, P. R. China, 1988
B.S. Aerospace Engineering
Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, P. R. China, 1985
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF SCIENCE IN AEROSPACE SYSTEMS
AT THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
February 2007
(cid:148) 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
Signature of Author: ______________________________________________________
Liling Ren, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
September 27, 2006
Certified by: _____________________________________________________________
John-Paul B. Clarke, Principal Research Scientist
Thesis Supervisor
Certified by: _____________________________________________________________
Charles M. Oman, Senior Lecturer
Committee Chair
Certified by: _____________________________________________________________
Eric Feron, Professor, School of Aerospace Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Certified by: _____________________________________________________________
Frank M. Cardullo, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
State University of New York at Binghamton
Accepted by: ____________________________________________________________
Jaime Peraire, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Chair, Committee on Graduate Students
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Modeling and Managing Separation for Noise Abatement
Arrival Procedures
by
Liling Ren
Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Doctor of Science in Aerospace Systems
Abstract
Aircraft noise is a significant concern to communities near airports, and therefore a constraint to the
growth of aviation. Advanced noise abatement approach and arrival procedures have been shown in
previous studies and in limited implementation to be a cost effective means of achieving near- and
medium-term noise reductions. Additionally, these procedures can be employed to reduce fuel burn,
emissions, and flight time. However, because of aircraft trajectory variations due to operational
uncertainties, it is difficult for air traffic controllers to predict and maintain separation between aircraft.
Thus, without proper decision support tools, controllers need to add arbitrarily large buffers, thereby
reducing airport throughput.
A design and operational framework is proposed to advance the implementation of noise abatement
arrival procedures. Under this framework, a target separation is given at an intermediate metering point
to ensure with a certain (limited) level of confidence that the remainder of the noise abatement arrival
procedure may be completed without further controller intervention. Small probability exceptions are
handled by alternative plans. A design methodology is presented, along with the details of a unique
Monte Carlo simulation-based Tool for Analysis of Separation And Throughput (TASAT) that is used to
determine the minimum possible target separation between aircraft at the metering point. Hence, a
smaller separation buffer can be used and traffic throughput can be maintained at a relatively high level.
The Monte Carlo simulation-based design tool accounts for operational uncertainties such as differences
in aircraft performance, Flight Management System logic, aircraft weight, pilot response, and winds. A
mode-decomposition and autoregressive approach was developed to model the stochastic wind variations
between flights. Aircraft trajectories from the Monte Carlo simulations (or from radar tracks if they are
available) are used within the context of the design methodology to determine target separations for given
desired level of confidence.
The utility of the design framework, methodology, and tools was illustrated through simulation analysis
and a Area Navigation (RNAV) Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA) flight test at Louisville International
Airport. The flight test results were consistent with the model prediction. The research demonstrated that
with the developed tools, noise abatement arrival procedures can be implemented to achieve noise
reductions and other economic and environmental benefits while maintaining a relatively high level of
traffic throughput. Suggestions for the selection of target separations and the location of the intermediate
metering point were provided based on the analysis.
Thesis Supervisor: John-Paul B. Clarke
Title: Principal Research Scientist
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my advisor and friend, Prof. John-Paul Clarke, for giving me the opportunity to
work on this wonderful project and to learn from him over the last four years, as well as for his advice,
guidance, encouragement, and patience. Thanks also go to other committee members for their
tremendous help and immeasurable guidance; to Dr. Charles Oman for going extra miles serving as my
committee chair; to Prof. Eric Feron for his encouragement, especially during those times when it was
needed; and to Prof. Frank Cardullo for his continuous support since I first met him ten years ago. I am
also grateful to Prof. R. John Hansman for his mentoring; to Prof. AmedeoOdoni for serving as myminor
advisor, to Prof. Charles Coleman for reviewing my thesis. I am appreciative of Dr. Jim Kuchar for
giving me initial guidance and support at MIT.
I would also like to thank Carl Burleson, Lourdes Maurice, and Sandy Liu of the FAA, Len Tobias
and Tom Davis of NASA Ames. Without their support,financialand technical, this work would nothave
been possible.
This work would not have been possible without the support of many other people. I would like to
thank Kevin Elmer and Kwok-On Tong of The Boeing Company, Tom Staigleof Delta Air Lines, Dannie
Bennett, Sarah Johnson, David Senechal, Walter White, and Andrew Willgruber of the FAA, Jim Brooks
of Georgia Tech, Robert Slattery of Louisville RAA, David Williams of the NASA, Jeffery Firth, Robert
Hilb, Stuart Lau, James Walton of UPS for providing various data and sharing their valuable expertise. I
amalso grateful to Prof. Nhut Tan Ho of California State University Northridge for his early work at MIT
in developing the initial version of the fast-time aircraft simulator and the pilot response delay model. I
am appreciative of: Peter-john Passingham of Airbus Industrie for providing A319 performance data;
TomG. Reynolds of the University of Cambridge for providing sample MST data and referencematerials
on the historical development of CDA in UK; Eric Parks of the US Airways for sharing his experience
with A320 FMS; Gregg Fleming of Volpe National Transportation System Center for providing ETMS
data; Joosung Lee and Daniel King of MIT for their help on implementing the BM2 in the fast-time
simulator; Ryan Tam of MIT for his help on the INM software; and Patricia A. Miller of NOAA for
providing access to the ACARS data. I would also like to thank Robert Doherty of the MIT Writing
Center for his help on editing the final version of this thesis.
All my friends at International Center for Air Transportation and the extended community of MIT
deserve my gratitude for making my graduate life an enriching experience. Especially, my thanks go to:
Antonio Abad, Yiannis Anagnostakis, Philippe Bonnefoy, Francis Carr, Emmanuel Carrier, Nathan
Doble, Diana Dorinson, Yasmine El Alj, Antony Evans, Terence Fan, Flora Garicia, Thomas Gorin,
Xiaowei He, Jonathan Histon, Jerome Huber, Masha Ishutkina, Kip Johnson, Laura Kang, Michelle
Karow, Alf Kohler, Alex Lee, Wenyu Luo, Laura Major, Terran Melconian, Alan Midkiff, Bruno Miller,
Miguel Molina, Alex Mozdzanowska, Fabio Rabbani, Hayley Reynolds, Robin Riedel, Sepehr Sarmadi,
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Natalia Sizov, Lixia Song, Georg Theis, Adeem Usman, Laurence Vigeant-Langlois, Roland Weibel, Lee
Winder, Shiro Yamanaka,and Katherine Zou.
My special appreciation goes to Prof. D. C. Sun of Binghamton University, who has always been a
source of encouragement and guidance to my graduate life at MIT.
Greatest thanks of all go to my family: to my mom and my dad for their unconditional support; to my
siblings: Xiaohui, Lihua, and Libin for everything they have done to support my study; to my wife Helen
and my son Marty for accompanying me through one of the most exciting and challenging adventures of
my life.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................................5
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................11
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................14
LIST OF ACRONYMS...................................................................................................15
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................17
1.1 The AircraftCommunity Noise Issue............................................................................................17
1.1.1 The Effects of Aircraft Noise................................................................................................17
1.1.2 Existing Efforts in Relieving the Aircraft Noise Problem....................................................19
1.2 Noise Abatement Approach and Arrival procedures.....................................................................23
1.3 ProblemAtatement........................................................................................................................25
1.4 Overview of the Thesis..................................................................................................................27
References...............................................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 2
NOISE ABATEMENT APPROACH AND ARRIVAL PROCEDURE DESIGN AND
OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK...................................................................................31
Nomenclature..........................................................................................................................................31
2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................................31
2.2 CommunityNoise Impact from Approach Aircraft.......................................................................33
2.2.1 Noise Metrics........................................................................................................................33
2.2.2 Noise Impact of Constant Speed Level Flight Segments......................................................35
2.2.3 Noise Impact of ConstantSpeed Idle Descent Segments......................................................38
2.2.4 Noise Reductions through Procedure Improvements............................................................41
2.3 Aircraft Performance.....................................................................................................................42
2.3.1 Total Fuel Flow Rate.............................................................................................................42
2.3.2 The Flight Path Angle...........................................................................................................44
2.4 Noise Abatement Approach and Arrival Procedure Design..........................................................48
2.5 Proposed Procedure Designand Operational Framework.............................................................51
2.6 Summary........................................................................................................................................52
References...............................................................................................................................................54
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CHAPTER 3
THE MONTE CARLO SIMULATION TOOL.................................................................57
Nomenclature..........................................................................................................................................57
3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................................58
3.2 The Fast-Time Aircraft Simulator.................................................................................................59
3.2.1 Aircraft Dynamics.................................................................................................................60
3.2.2 The Effect of Wind................................................................................................................60
3.2.3 The FMS Model....................................................................................................................62
3.2.4 The Pilot Model.....................................................................................................................63
3.2.5 SimulatorValidation.............................................................................................................64
3.3 Modeling External Factors Contributingto TrajectoryVariations................................................64
3.3.1 Pilot Response Delay............................................................................................................65
3.3.2 Aircraft Weight.....................................................................................................................66
3.3.3 Wind Variations....................................................................................................................70
3.3.4 Other Factors Contributing to Aircraft Trajectory Variations...............................................71
3.4 The Integrated Monte Carlo Simulation Tool................................................................................72
3.5 Summary........................................................................................................................................73
References...............................................................................................................................................74
CHAPTER 4
MODELING AND SIMULATING WIND VARIATION BETWEEN FLIGHTS.................75
Nomenclature..........................................................................................................................................75
4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................................76
4.2 Data SourceandModeling Approach............................................................................................77
4.2.1 Data Source...........................................................................................................................77
4.2.2 Modeling Approach..............................................................................................................79
4.2.3 Data for the Numeric Examples............................................................................................80
4.3 Mode Decompositionof the Wind Variation Signal.....................................................................80
4.3.1 Extracting Wind Variation Profiles.......................................................................................80
4.3.2 Mode Decomposition............................................................................................................84
4.4 The Autoregressive Wind Variation Model...................................................................................87
4.4.1 Formulation of Autoregressive Model..................................................................................88
4.4.2 The Estimation of Covariance Sequences of Wind Variation Signals..................................88
4.4.3 Solving Autoregressive Model Parameters...........................................................................91
4.4.4 Power SpectralDensity Analysis..........................................................................................92
4.5 Simulation with Autoregressive Wind Variation Models..............................................................94
4.5.1 Simulation Using AR Models Based on Raw Wind Variation Components........................95
4.5.2 Simulation Using AR Models Based on Mode Decomposition............................................96
4.5.3 Application of the Wind Variation Model............................................................................98
4.6 Summary........................................................................................................................................99
References.............................................................................................................................................100
CHAPTER 5
SEPARATION ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY............................................................103
Nomenclature........................................................................................................................................103
5.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................104
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5.2 Trajectory Variation and Separation............................................................................................105
5.3 The Inverse Separation Analysis Problem...................................................................................107
5.4 Conditional Probability Separation Analysis Method.................................................................109
5.4.1 Sequence-Independent Target Separation...........................................................................109
5.4.2 Sequence-Specific TargetSeparation..................................................................................110
5.5 Total Probability Separation Analysis Method............................................................................111
5.5.1 The Characteristics of Spacing in Arrival Stream...............................................................111
5.5.2 Total Probability for Unadjusted Traffic.............................................................................112
5.5.3 Sequence-Independent Target Separation...........................................................................114
5.5.4 Sequence-Specific TargetSeparation..................................................................................114
5.6 Tradeoff Analysis.........................................................................................................................116
5.6.1 Trade-off Analysis through Solving Optimization Problems..............................................116
5.6.2 Simplified Optimization Problems......................................................................................117
5.6.3 On the Use of Sequence-Specific Target Separations.........................................................118
5.7 Summary......................................................................................................................................118
References.............................................................................................................................................119
CHAPTER 6
THE UTILITY AND APPLICATION OF THE DESIGN FRAMEWORK,
METHODOLOGY, AND TOOLS.................................................................................121
Nomenclature........................................................................................................................................121
6.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................121
6.2 The Simulation Study..................................................................................................................124
6.2.1 SimulationSetup.................................................................................................................124
6.2.2 Feasible Separations, the Target Separation and the Application of
Conditional Probability Method..........................................................................................125
6.2.3 The Application of the Total Probability Method...............................................................128
6.2.4 The Contributions of Winds................................................................................................130
6.2.5 The Effect of the Location of the Intermediate Metering Point..........................................132
6.3 Flight test results..........................................................................................................................134
6.3.1 The Flight Test....................................................................................................................134
6.3.2 Observed Spacing and Spacing Adjustment during the Flight Test....................................137
6.3.3 Separation Analysis Using Radar Tracks............................................................................143
6.4 Summary......................................................................................................................................147
References.............................................................................................................................................149
CHAPTER 7
CONTRIBUTIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS.....151
7.1 Contributions...............................................................................................................................151
7.2 Conclusions andImplications......................................................................................................154
7.2.1 On Noise Abatement Arrival Procedure Design.................................................................154
7.2.2 On The Separation Analysis Methodology.........................................................................155
7.2.3 Observations from the Flight Test.......................................................................................156
7.2.4 Implications of This Research.............................................................................................157
7.3 Future research work....................................................................................................................158
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APPENDIX A
THE FAST-TIME AIRCRAFT SIMULATOR ...............................................................161
Nomenclature........................................................................................................................................161
A.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................162
A.2 The Aircraft Dynamics Model.....................................................................................................165
A.2.1 External Forces....................................................................................................................165
A.2.2 Translational Derivatives....................................................................................................167
A.2.3 Angular Derivatives............................................................................................................167
A.2.4 Navigation Equations..........................................................................................................167
A.2.5 Integration Method..............................................................................................................168
A.3 The Effect of Wind......................................................................................................................168
A.3.1 The Effect of Wind on Aircraft Movement.........................................................................168
A.3.2 Aircraft Angle of Attack and Sideslip Angle......................................................................171
A.3.3 The Wind Model.................................................................................................................172
A.4 The FMS Module.........................................................................................................................173
A.4.1 LNAV Functionality...........................................................................................................173
A.4.2 VNAV Functionality...........................................................................................................174
A.4.3 Idle Constant CAS Descent and Constant Mach Descent Segments..................................175
A.4.4 Fixed Descent Rate Deceleration........................................................................................176
A.4.5 Fixed FlightPath Angle Descent........................................................................................177
A.5 Aircraft Control............................................................................................................................178
A.5.1 The Pilot Model...................................................................................................................178
A.5.2 Lateral Control AutopilotModule.......................................................................................179
A.5.3 LongitudinalControl Autopilot Module.............................................................................179
A.6 The Application of the Aircraft Simulator...................................................................................181
A.6.1 Simulation Data Flow.........................................................................................................181
A.6.2 Simulation Accuracy...........................................................................................................183
A.6.3 Interfaces to External Tools................................................................................................184
A.7 Summary......................................................................................................................................185
References.............................................................................................................................................185
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