Arrival Trajectory Optimization on Noise Impact using Interval Analysis

The CleanEra project is initiated by the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Significant reduction of noise impact on perimeters of airports via arrival trajectory optimization is considered as one of the major targets of the project. In this paper, an aircraft model and its acoustic performance are introduced to assist the development of the optimization tool since the CleaenEra project is still ongoing. Interval analysis is explained in details because interval algebra is employed to deal with real intervals rather than real numbers in the so-called interval-related optimization algorithms. The largest advantage of such algorithms is that they are capable of finding the global optimum out of the multiple local minima to a given optimization problem. Two numerical examples are presented to show the usefulness of such algorithms while solving both static and dynamic optimization problems. In the end, a third example is given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed optimization tool to trajectory optimization for arriving passenger aircraft.Control & OperationsAerospace Engineerin

Arrival Trajectory Optimization for Passenger Aircraft using Genetic Algorithms

This work concentrates on the development of an optimization technique which is capable of minimizing the noise impact of an arriving aircraft by optimizing its flight trajectory. Actions needed from pilots to gradually establish the landing configuration are considered because it is expected that the pilot workload throughout this phase should be remained or even reduced compared with the current standard arrival procedures. Therefore, the conventional point-mass equations of motion are reformulated in such a way that the variations of the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft of different configurations can be easily taken into account. A set of independent state variables are chosen to be parameterized with Bernstein polynomials in order to convert the infinite-dimensional optimal control problem into a finite-dimensional parametric optimization problem. The number of awakenings is selected as the performance index and finally written into a function of the parameters introduced by the parameterization process. Genetic algorithms are employed to optimize these parameters within a search domain in order to minimize the number of awakenings while satisfying all constraints on both state and control variables. A number of numerical examples, for a Boeing 747-400 aircraft arriving at an airport with different population distribution situations, are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed optimization technique. Without loss of generality, this particular technique is also able to deal with a departing aircraft since most of the models are built into replaceable modules.Control & OperationsAerospace Engineerin

Runway Shape Optimization for Reducing Airport Environmental Impact and Increasing Aircraft Productivity

This paper presents the concept and advantages of vertically curved runways for reducing the air pollution in the vicinity of airports, while also increasing the productivity of passenger aircraft. The shape of a curved runway was optimize to minimize the produced CO2 during an aircraft take-off and also to maximize the aircraft take-off weight for a given runway horizontal length. A method for aircraft take-off simulation is presented and validated using actual data of a passenger aircraft. Using that method a seried of single objectiveas well as multi-objective optimizations was performed to find the optimum runway shape for different objectives: minimizing the produced CO2 during take-off, maximizing the aircraft take-off weight and minimizing the runway construction cost, while achieving the first two objectives. The results of the oprimizations showed that for a Boeing 747-400 class aircraft about 250kg reduction in the produced CO2 during a take-off can be achieved using a curved runway with a height of 60m and the length of 3km. On the other hand, the range of a similar aircraft can be increased by 2500km using a curved runway with the same height and length comparing to a flat runway with the same horizontal length