Optimal assignment of 4D close-loop instructions to enable CDOs in dense TMAs

Abstract

Continuous descent operations (CDOs) with required times of arrival (RTAs) represent a potential solution to reduce the environmental impact in terminal maneuvering areas without degrading capacity. However, flight management systems require to know the remaining distance to the metering fix in order to compute the CDO complying with the CTA. This paper assesses the feasibility of replacing the current air traffic control sequencing and merging techniques, which are mainly based on open-loop vectoring, by a control based on RTAs over known and pre-defined arrival routes (i.e., with known distances to go). An optimal control problem has been formulated and solved in order to generate CDO trajectories, while a mixedinteger-linear programming model was build in order to solve the aircraft landing problem in the metering fix. The assessment has been performed for Berlin-Schönefeld airport (Germany), by using arrival traffic gathered from historical data and by taking advantage of its tromboning procedure. Furthermore, a second scenario was studied by adding more simulated traffic to the existing one. Results show that, after assigning an RTA and a route to every arriving aircraft, a time separation of 120 is ensured in the metering fix, while at least 90 seconds of separation are maintained in the the rest of waypoints of the procedure.

Evaluation of Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals

“…where f : R nx×nu → R and f idle : R nx → R are the nominal and idle fuel flow, respectively; and CI is the cost index, which is a parameter chosen by the airspace user that reflects the relative importance of the cost of time with respect to fuel costs [1]. The CI is estimated by assuming that the aircraft was flying at the optimal speed in the cruise phase, as shown in [20].…”

Analysis of Weather Impact on Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals

“…where f : R nx×nu → R and f idle : R nx → R are the nominal and idle fuel flow, respectively; and CI is the cost index, which is a parameter chosen by the airspace user that reflects the relative importance of the cost of time with respect to fuel costs [2]. The CI is estimated by assuming that the aircraft was flying at the optimal speed in the cruise phase, as shown in [24].…”

Automation for Separation with Continuous Descent Operations: Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes

“…Given a known route (route length), and consequently a fixed distance to go, the optimization of the vertical profile (altitude and speed) can be formulated as an optimal control problem, which aims at computing the control time history of a system, here the aircraft, such that a cost function is minimized while satisfying some dynamic and operational constraints [25].…”