{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/75043"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/75043","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"A Computer Model to Predict Potential Wake Turbulence Encounters in the National Airspace","abstract":"With an increasing population of super heavy aircraft operating in the National Airspace System and with the introduction of NextGen technologies, the wake vortex problem has become more important for airport capacity and the en-route air traffic operations. The vortices generated by heavy and super heavy aircraft can generate potential hazards to other aircraft on nearby flight paths. Moreover, the design of new airport procedures needs to consider the interactions between aircraft in closer paths. New methods and models are required to examine these effects before new operations are conducted in the National Airspace System (NAS). Reducing wake vortex separations to safe levels between successive aircraft is essential for NextGen operations. One approach taken recently by ICAO and the FAA is to introduce a re-categorization (ReCat) of wake vortex separations to six groups from the existing five groups employed by the FAA in the United States. Reduced aircraft separations can increase capacity in the NAS with corresponding savings in delay times at busy airports. Future NextGen operations are likely to introduce smaller aircraft separations in the en-route and in the terminal area. Such operations would require better methods to identify potential wake hazards from reduced separation operations. This dissertation describes a model to identify potential wake encounters in the future NAS. The goal of the dissertation is to describe the Enhanced Wake Encounter Model (EWEM), a model that employs a detailed NASA-developed wake model to generate wake zones for different aircraft categories under different flight conditions that can be used with aircraft flight path data to identify potential wake encounters. The main contribution of this model is to gain an understanding of potential wake encounters under future NAS operations.","abstract_html":"With an increasing population of super heavy aircraft operating in the National Airspace System and with the introduction of NextGen technologies, the wake vortex problem has become more important for airport capacity and the en-route air traffic operations. The vortices generated by heavy and super heavy aircraft can generate potential hazards to other aircraft on nearby flight paths. Moreover, the design of new airport procedures needs to consider the interactions between aircraft in closer paths. New methods and models are required to examine these effects before new operations are conducted in the National Airspace System (NAS). Reducing wake vortex separations to safe levels between successive aircraft is essential for NextGen operations. One approach taken recently by ICAO and the FAA is to introduce a re-categorization (ReCat) of wake vortex separations to six groups from the existing five groups employed by the FAA in the United States. Reduced aircraft separations can increase capacity in the NAS with corresponding savings in delay times at busy airports. Future NextGen operations are likely to introduce smaller aircraft separations in the en-route and in the terminal area. Such operations would require better methods to identify potential wake hazards from reduced separation operations. This dissertation describes a model to identify potential wake encounters in the future NAS. The goal of the dissertation is to describe the Enhanced Wake Encounter Model (EWEM), a model that employs a detailed NASA-developed wake model to generate wake zones for different aircraft categories under different flight conditions that can be used with aircraft flight path data to identify potential wake encounters. The main contribution of this model is to gain an understanding of potential wake encounters under future NAS operations.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fan, Zheng"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Ph. D.","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":"Civil Engineering","degree_department":"Civil and Environmental Engineering","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Trani, Antonio A."],"committee_members":["Pasupathy, Raghu","Abbas, Montasir M.","Hobeika, Antoine G."],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-02-13","date_published":"2015-02-13","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:41Z","subjects":["Air Traffic Control","Wake Turbulence","Next-Gen Operation","Air Traffic Simulation","Air Traffic Safety","Air Traffic Capacity","Simulation","Modeling"],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:4239"],"render_values":[{"text":"vt_gsexam:4239","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/75043","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Trani, Antonio A."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Pasupathy, Raghu","Abbas, Montasir M.","Hobeika, Antoine G."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Civil and Environmental Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fan, Zheng"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2017-02-15T07:00:20Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-02-15T07:00:20Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2015-02-13"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Civil Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph. D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Air Traffic Control","Wake Turbulence","Next-Gen Operation","Air Traffic Simulation","Air Traffic Safety","Air Traffic Capacity","Simulation","Modeling"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:4239"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/75043"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["With an increasing population of super heavy aircraft operating in the National Airspace System and with the introduction of NextGen technologies, the wake vortex problem has become more important for airport capacity and the en-route air traffic operations. The vortices generated by heavy and super heavy aircraft can generate potential hazards to other aircraft on nearby flight paths. Moreover, the design of new airport procedures needs to consider the interactions between aircraft in closer paths. New methods and models are required to examine these effects before new operations are conducted in the National Airspace System (NAS). Reducing wake vortex separations to safe levels between successive aircraft is essential for NextGen operations. One approach taken recently by ICAO and the FAA is to introduce a re-categorization (ReCat) of wake vortex separations to six groups from the existing five groups employed by the FAA in the United States. Reduced aircraft separations can increase capacity in the NAS with corresponding savings in delay times at busy airports. Future NextGen operations are likely to introduce smaller aircraft separations in the en-route and in the terminal area. Such operations would require better methods to identify potential wake hazards from reduced separation operations. This dissertation describes a model to identify potential wake encounters in the future NAS. The goal of the dissertation is to describe the Enhanced Wake Encounter Model (EWEM), a model that employs a detailed NASA-developed wake model to generate wake zones for different aircraft categories under different flight conditions that can be used with aircraft flight path data to identify potential wake encounters. The main contribution of this model is to gain an understanding of potential wake encounters under future NAS operations."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Ph. D."]},{"key":"dc:format.medium","label":"Dc Format Medium","values":["ETD"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Computer Model to Predict Potential Wake Turbulence Encounters in the National Airspace"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Trani, Antonio A."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Pasupathy, Raghu","Abbas, Montasir M.","Hobeika, Antoine G."],"dc:contributor.department":["Civil and Environmental Engineering"],"dc:creator":["Fan, Zheng"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2017-02-15T07:00:20Z"],"dc:date.available":["2017-02-15T07:00:20Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2015-02-13"],"dc:description.abstract":["With an increasing population of super heavy aircraft operating in the National Airspace System and with the introduction of NextGen technologies, the wake vortex problem has become more important for airport capacity and the en-route air traffic operations. The vortices generated by heavy and super heavy aircraft can generate potential hazards to other aircraft on nearby flight paths. Moreover, the design of new airport procedures needs to consider the interactions between aircraft in closer paths. New methods and models are required to examine these effects before new operations are conducted in the National Airspace System (NAS). Reducing wake vortex separations to safe levels between successive aircraft is essential for NextGen operations. One approach taken recently by ICAO and the FAA is to introduce a re-categorization (ReCat) of wake vortex separations to six groups from the existing five groups employed by the FAA in the United States. Reduced aircraft separations can increase capacity in the NAS with corresponding savings in delay times at busy airports. Future NextGen operations are likely to introduce smaller aircraft separations in the en-route and in the terminal area. Such operations would require better methods to identify potential wake hazards from reduced separation operations. This dissertation describes a model to identify potential wake encounters in the future NAS. The goal of the dissertation is to describe the Enhanced Wake Encounter Model (EWEM), a model that employs a detailed NASA-developed wake model to generate wake zones for different aircraft categories under different flight conditions that can be used with aircraft flight path data to identify potential wake encounters. The main contribution of this model is to gain an understanding of potential wake encounters under future NAS operations."],"dc:description.degree":["Ph. D."],"dc:format.medium":["ETD"],"dc:identifier.other":["vt_gsexam:4239"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/75043"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Air Traffic Control","Wake Turbulence","Next-Gen Operation","Air Traffic Simulation","Air Traffic Safety","Air Traffic Capacity","Simulation","Modeling"],"dc:title":["A Computer Model to Predict Potential Wake Turbulence Encounters in the National Airspace"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Civil Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph. D."],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:41Z"}