Reducing fuel consumption is a major goal for the aviation community due to environmental concern and fuel price uncertainty. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently developing and implementing Air Traffic Management (ATM) technologies to ensure reliable operational performance that is robust to delays caused by congestion and weather. These technologies will reduce planned and unexpected airborne delays; as such they will reduce the airline practice of schedule padding, or contingency planning for excess fuel and time consumption on a give route, as well as airborne and...
Aviation system planning, particularly fleet selection and adoption, is challenged by fuel price uncertainty. Fuel price uncertainty is due fuel and energy price fluctuations and a growing awareness of the environmental externalities related to transportation activities, particularly as they relate to climate change. To assist in aviation systems planning under such fuel price uncertainty and environmental regulation, this study takes a total logistic cost approach and evaluates three representative aircraft (narrow body, regional jet, and turboprop) for operating and passenger preference...
Aviation system planning is challenged by the rapid increase in fuel prices and uncertainty in air traffic management (ATM) charges. As airlines decrease capacity and decommission older aircraft and aviation navigation service providers ponder new ATM charging schemes, a critical question is: which aircraft provide air transportation service for the lowest cost? This study evaluates the introduction of a minimally utilized aircraft type in the United States, the 72-seat turboprop, compared with currently operated narrow body and regional jet aircraft. Homogenous fleets of these vehicles...
We examine how fuel price variation resulting from either market forces or environmental policy initiatives affects the optimal mix of services in intercity transportation. We develop analytic continuum approximation total logistics cost (TLC) models of intercity transportation that are sensitive to fuel price, incorporate multiple classes of vehicles, and serve passengers with differentiated values of time. We find that under high fuel prices, the TLC is minimized by effectively segregating passengers on different types of vehicles according to their values of time. Numerical examples...
Airlines and Air Navigation Service Providers are united in their goal to reduce fuel consumption. While changes to flight operations and technology investments are the focus of a number of studies, our study is among the first to investigate an untapped source of aviation fuel consumption: excess contingency fuel loading. Given the downside risk of fuel exhaustion of diverting to an alternate airport, airline dispatchers may load excess fuel onto an aircraft. Such conservatism comes at a cost of consuming excess fuel, as fuel consumed is a function of, among other factors, aircraft weight...
The transportation industry is one of the largest sources of emissions in the United States, accounting for 29% of all emissions. Air transportation contributes a certain portion of these emissions with its reliance on jet fuel. Aircraft emissions occur at different rates, depending on the phase of flight. Some phases constitute the shortest amount of operational time but still account for a significant amount of greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutant emissions. Additionally, some phases of flight are more difficult to decarbonize due to the current limitations in battery and hydrogen...
The goal of this dissertation is to design controllers that guarantee collision-free operation of vehicles on an Automated Highway System (AHS) using platooning. It begins with an overview of the AHS control system. The individual layers of the hierarchical control architecture for platooning are described, followed by a brief introduction to hybrid systems. This is then followed by a description of the design of a regulation layer feedback controller for the leader of a platoon. The next section contains the design of an interface between this feedback controller and the discrete event...
This report addresses how the California Department of Transportation and the California PATH Program have made efforts to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of highway electrification and automation technologies. In addition to describing how the work was conducted, the report also describes the findings on highway electrification and highway automation, with experimental results, design study results, and a region-wide application impacts study for Los Angeles.
This study investigates issues concerning the implementation and impacts of lateral guidance/control systems and the phased implementation of these systems in exclusive-access High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes. The study is divided into 5 volumes. The objectives of each volume are as follows: Vol. 1: identify strategies for early deployment of longitudinal control technologies on the highway, and to evaluate potential impacts of these strategies on traffic operation, highway capacity, and traffic accidents. Vol. 2A: assess the feasibility of early deployment of Roadway Powered Electric...
Identifies potentially promising market segments for electric and hybrid vehicle technologies; covers topics including energy and power requirements, battery and range extender, propulsion system, and air conditioning
