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Projecte llegit

Títol: Flight distance modelling to evaluate flight efficiency and environmental impact


Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:


Director/a: VILLARDI DE MONTLAUR, ADELINE DE

Departament: FIS

Títol: Flight distance modelling to evaluate flight efficiency and environmental impact

Data inici oferta: 14-12-2021     Data finalització oferta: 14-07-2022



Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
flight distance, flight time, emissions, flight efficiency, analytical model, ATM, intermodality, fuel consumption
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
This project aims to obtain flight distance statistics for
different European routes, times of the day, airlines, and winds.

These statistics will then be used to generate a model relating
the great circle distance (GCD) and the "real" flight distance.
Estimates of error will be computed and compared to corrections
usually applied on the GCD to get the real flight distance, such
as the one used by the ICAO.

This model will be useful to evaluate flight efficiency and to
serve as an input in models computing flight emissions.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
The main objective of this project is to create models and study the real flight
distance, horizontal and vertical flight efficiency, fuel consumption, and
emissions, for short and medium-haul flights in Europe, based on real flight
data obtained from ADS-B readings, using the online application Flightradar24.
With most studies on consumption and emissions relying on the great circle
distance (GCD) to measure the flight distance in air operations, the need to
better adjust the flight time and flight distance to reality arose. To do so, all the
input data on which this project is based on corresponds to real commercial
flights that took place in Europe, between October 2021 and May 2022.
After collecting and processing the data using software tools such as Matlab
and Excel, a model was created to better understand which factors affect the
flight distance. These models can be useful to, for example, study the possibility
of intermodality, a solution that proposes that some flights are replaced by more
sustainable transport models, such as the train. Then, the real flight distance
and maximum flight level are compared to the GCD and the reference altitude
respectively, to find the Horizontal Flight Efficiency (HFE) and Vertical Flight
Efficiency (VFE).
Finally, a fuel consumption, and consequently, an emission study, is carried out
not to only find out the relationship between emissions and flight efficiency, but
also to assess how different air traffic management (ATM) solutions, such as
free route airspace or continuous descent operations affect the consumption
and emissions.
The results obtained allow the user to, knowing the GCD between two airport
pairs, find an estimation of the real flight distance and greenhouse gas
emissions. Additionally, after assessing the current situation in European
airspace regarding flight efficiency, it is studied if the defined ATM solutions
indeed reduce, and how much, the fuel burnt and emissions.


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