Vertical and lateral flight optimization algorithm and missed approach cost calculation

摘要

Flight trajectory optimization is being looked as a way of reducing flight costs, fuel burned and emissions generated by the fuel consumption. The objective of this work is to find the optimal trajectory between two points.ududTo find the optimal trajectory, the parameters of weight, cost index, initial coordinates, and meteorological conditions along the route are provided to the algorithm. This algorithm finds the trajectory where the global cost is the most economical. The global cost is a compromise between fuel burned and flight time, this is determined using a cost index that assigns a cost in terms of fuel to the flight time. The optimization is achieved by calculating a candidate optimal cruise trajectory profile from all the combinations available in the aircraft performance database. With this cruise candidate profile, more cruises profiles are calculated taken into account the climb and descend costs. During cruise, step climbs are evaluated to optimize the trajectory. The different trajectories are compared and the most economical one is defined as the optimal vertical navigation profile.ududFrom the optimal vertical navigation profile, different lateral routes are tested. Taking advantage of the meteorological influence, the algorithm looks for the lateral navigation trajectory where the global cost is the most economical. That route is then selected as the optimal lateral navigation profile.ududThe meteorological data was obtained from environment Canada. The new way of obtaining data from the grid from environment Canada proposed in this work resulted in an important computation time reduction compared against other methods such as bilinear interpolation.ududThe algorithm developed here was evaluated in two different aircraft: the Lockheed L-1011 and the Sukhoi Russian regional jet. The algorithm was developed in MATLAB, and the validation was performed using Flight-Sim by Presagis and the FMS CMA-9000 by CMC Electronics – Esterline.ududAt the end of this work a new method of calculating the missed approach fuel burned and its emissions is developed and explained. This calculation was performed using an emissions database and a Visual Basic for applications code in Excel.