Airport Capacity and TSAM
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A Modeling Framework to Estimate Airport Runway Capacity in the National Airspace System Yueh-Ting Chen Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Civil and Environmental Engineering Committee Members: Dr. Antonio Trani Dr. Hojong Baik Dr. Hesham Rakha December 12, 2006 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: airport runway capacity, Airfield Capacity Model Copyright 2006, Yueh-Ting Chen A Modeling Framework to Estimate Airport Runway Capacity in the National Airspace System Yueh-Ting Chen Abstract The objective of this study is to estimate the airport capacity in the National Airspace System (NAS). Previous studies have focused on the airport capacity of large commercial airports. This research study estimates the runway capacity for more than two thousand airports in the NAS in order to understand future tradeoffs between air transportation demand and supply. The study presented in this report includes capacity estimates for general aviation and commercial airports. To estimate airport runway capacity, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airfield Capacity Model (ACM) is used to assess the capacity at all candidate airports in a target airport set. This set includes all airports with potential Very Light Jet (VLJ) operations. The result of the study provides a broad view about the airport capacity in the future air transportation system, and could help decision makers with a modeling framework to identify congestion patterns in the system. Moreover, airport capacity is an important limiting factor in the growth of air transportation demand. The main motivation in our analyis is to include airport capacity constraints in forecasts of air transportation demand. The framework described in this report has been integrated into the Transportation Systems Analysis Model (TSAM). TSAM is a comprehensive intercity and multimode transportation planning tool to predict future air transportation demand. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr.Trani for the opportunity to work with him in the Air Transportation Systems Laboratory. His wisdom and patience guide me throughout this study, and the past two years are definitely one of the most invaluable learning experiences that I have ever had. I would also like to thank Dr.Baik, Dr.Rakha, Mr.Swingle and Nick for all of their advices and help throughout this research project, especially the great work of TSAM integration by Nick. Besides, I am really glad to have Senanu, Anand, Sohn, Jeff, Yue, and Nola as my colleagues. Fang-Yi, Chu-Yun, Chih- Yang, and Wen-Chun, I would like to thank all your encouragements. Last but not least, I have to thank the support from my parents and brother throughout my study in the Virginia Tech. Thank your all! Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Section 1.1 Objectives ...................................................................................................... 2 Section 1.2 Scope of Study ............................................................................................... 2 Section 1.3 Characteristics of Airport Capacity ............................................................... 3 Section 1.4 Summary........................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2 Literature Review..................................................................................................... 6 Section 2.1 Airport Capacity Analysis Methodologies..................................................... 6 Section 2.2 Review of Airport Capacity Models.............................................................. 7 Section 2.3 Review of Other Airport Capacity Research ............................................... 16 Section 2.4 Summary...................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 18 Section 3.1 Introduction.................................................................................................. 18 Section 3.2 Methodology to Create Target Airport Set .................................................. 20 Section 3.2.1 Overview and Scope of Target Airport Set............................................... 20 Section 3.2.2 Overview and Scope of FAA Airport Master Record .............................. 20 Section 3.2.3 Procedure to Create Target Airport Set .................................................... 21 Section 3.3 Methodology to Estimate Aircraft Mix........................................................ 21 Section 3.3.1 Overview of Aircraft Mix ......................................................................... 21 Section 3.3.2 Overview and Scope of Aircraft Mix Data Sources ................................. 22 Section 3.3.3 Overview and Scope of BTS T-100 Data ................................................. 24 Section 3.3.4 Procedure to Calculate Commercial Operations Using BTS T-100 Air Carrier Statistics.............................................................................................................. 25 Section 3.3.5 Overview and Scope of Based Aircraft Data............................................ 27 Section 3.3.6 Procedure to Estimate General Aviation Operations Using Based Aircraft Data................................................................................................................................. 28 Section 3.3.7 Procedure to Calculate Aircraft Mix......................................................... 31 Section 3.4 Airfield Capacity Model Analysis ............................................................... 31 Section 3.4.1 Overview and Scope of ACM................................................................... 31 Section 3.4.2 Assumptions about various ACM Parameters .......................................... 35 Section 3.4.3 Procedure to Run ACM and Output ......................................................... 38 Section 3.4.4 Applying ACM to Other Airports in the Target Airport Set .................... 40 Section 3.5 Supplementary Runway Capacity Analysis Data ........................................ 40 Chapter 4 Results and Verification......................................................................................... 42 Section 4.1 Composition of the Target Airport Set ........................................................ 42 Section 4.2 Operations and Aircraft Mix at the Target Airport Set................................ 45 Section 4.3 Airport Capacity........................................................................................... 46 Section 4.4 Application of Future Scenarios .................................................................. 60 Section 4.5 Verification .................................................................................................. 62 Chapter 5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 68 Section 5.1 Summary of Objectives................................................................................ 68 Section 5.2 Summary of Results..................................................................................... 68 i Section 5.3 Recommendations and Future Research...................................................... 69 References............................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix A Acronyms ........................................................................................................... 75 Appendix B Runway Surface Types and Conditions Accepted ............................................. 76 Appendix C T-100 Segment Data Fields List and Description .............................................. 77 Appendix D Airfield Capacity Model Output File Example.................................................. 79 Appendix E-1 Matlab Program File for Single Runway Airport............................................ 83 Appendix E-2 Matlab Program File for Multi-Runway Airport-Runway Classification....... 92 Appendix E-3 Matlab Program File for Multi-Runway Airport-Parser ............................... 108 Appendix E-4 Matlab Program File for Multi-Runway Airport-Result Collection ............. 130 Appendix E-5 Matlab Program File for Multi-Runway Airport-Result Comparison........... 135 Appendix F List of the Target Airports ................................................................................ 139 Appendix G Aircraft Type and Weight Class List................................................................ 210 ii List of Figures Figure 1: Problem Situation...................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2: Final Approach and Landing Processes; Arrival-Only Scenario; Vi < Vj.............. 11 Figure 3: Final Approach and Landing Processes; Arrival-Only Scenario; Vi > Vj.............. 12 Figure 4: Final Approach and Landing Processes, Mix Operation Scenario.......................... 13 Figure 5: Flowchart of the Airport Runway Capacity Study.................................................. 19 Figure 6: Screen Capture of FAA Airport Master Record Used in the Study. ....................... 21 Figure 7: