Multi-scale path planning for reduced environmental impact of aviation

A future air traffic management system capable of rerouting aircraft trajectories in real-time in response to transient and evolving events would result in increased aircraft efficiency, better utilization of the airspace, and decreased environmental impact. Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) is used within a receding horizon framework to form aircraft trajectories which mitigate persistent contrail formation, avoid areas of convective weather, and seek a minimum fuel solution. Areas conducive to persistent contrail formation and areas of convective weather occur at disparate temporal and spatial scales, and thereby require the receding horizon controller to be adaptable to multi-scale events. In response, a novel adaptable receding horizon controller was developed to account for multi-scale disturbances, as well as generate trajectories using both a penalty function approach for obstacle penetration and hard obstacle avoidance constraints. A realistic aircraft fuel burn model based on aircraft data and engine performance simulations is used to form the cost function in the MILP optimization. The performance of the receding horizon algorithm is tested through simulation. A scalability analysis of the algorithm is conducted to ensure the tractability of the path planner. The adaptable receding horizon algorithm is shown to successfully negotiate multi-scale environments with performance exceeding static receding horizon solutions. The path planner is applied to realistic scenarios involving real atmospheric data. A single flight example for persistent contrail mitigation shows that fuel burn increases 1.48% when approximately 50% of persistent contrails are avoided, but 6.19% when 100% of persistent contrails are avoided. Persistent contrail mitigating trajectories are generated for multiple days of data, and the research shows that 58% of persistent contrails are avoided with a 0.48% increase in fuel consumption when averaged over a year.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Campbell, Scot E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bragg, Michael B.
• Neogi, Natasha A.
• Wuebbles, Donald J.
• Coverstone, Victoria L.
• Langbort, Cedric

• contrail
• aviation
• environment
• path planning
• Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP)
• optimization
• trajectory
• air traffic management

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Scot Edward Campbell

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16034

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16034