Environmental Optimization of Aircraft Departures: Fuel Burn, Emissions, and Noise (2013)

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A I R P O R T C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M ACRP REPORT 86 TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2013 www.TRB.org Research sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration Subscriber Categories Aviation • Economics • Environment Environmental Optimization of Aircraft Departures: Fuel Burn, Emissions, and Noise Brian Kim, Ben Manning, and Ben Sharp Wyle laboratories, inc. Arlington, VA John-Paul Clarke, Isaac Robeson, and Jim Brooks GeorGia institute of technoloGy Atlanta, GA David Senzig Volpe center–u.s. Department of transportation Cambridge, MA

AIRPORT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM Airports are vital national resources. They serve a key role in trans­ portation of people and goods and in regional, national, and inter­ national commerce. They are where the nation’s aviation system connects with other modes of transportation and where federal respon­ sibility for managing and regulating air traffic operations intersects with the role of state and local governments that own and operate most airports. Research is necessary to solve common operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the airport industry. The Airport Coopera­ tive Research Program (ACRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the airport industry can develop innovative near­term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for ACRP was identified in TRB Special Report 272: Airport Research Needs: Cooperative Solutions in 2003, based on a study spon­ sored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The ACRP carries out applied research on problems that are shared by airport operating agencies and are not being adequately addressed by existing federal research programs. It is modeled after the successful National Coopera­ tive Highway Research Program and Transit Cooperative Research Pro­ gram. The ACRP undertakes research and other technical activities in a variety of airport subject areas, including design, construction, mainte­ nance, operations, safety, security, policy, planning, human resources, and administration. The ACRP provides a forum where airport opera­ tors can cooperatively address common operational problems. The ACRP was authorized in December 2003 as part of the Vision 100­Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act. 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The panels pre­ pare project statements (requests for proposals), select contractors, and provide technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. The process for developing research problem statements and selecting research agencies has been used by TRB in managing cooper­ ative research programs since 1962. As in other TRB activities, ACRP project panels serve voluntarily without compensation. Primary emphasis is placed on disseminating ACRP results to the intended end­users of the research: airport operating agencies, service providers, and suppliers. The ACRP produces a series of research reports for use by airport operators, local agencies, the FAA, and other interested parties, and industry associations may arrange for work­ shops, training aids, field visits, and other activities to ensure that results are implemented by airport­industry practitioners. ACRP REPORT 86 Project 02­12 ISSN 1935­9802 ISBN 978­0­309­25903­3 Library of Congress Control Number 2013935788 © 2013 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not­for­profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB or FAA endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not­for­profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Airport Cooperative Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the Airport Cooperative Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report. Published reports of the AIRPORT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at http://www.national­academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America

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C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research team would like to express our gratitude to various individuals who have contributed to the successful completion of this project, particularly the previous project managers for this project, Clint Morrow and Fabio Grandi. Mr. Morrow provided the initial leadership in directing the project, and Mr. Grandi was instrumental in managing the development of the electronic tool. CRP STAFF FOR ACRP REPORT 86 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Michael R. Salamone, ACRP Manager Lawrence D. Goldstein, Senior Program Officer Anthony P. Avery, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor ACRP PROJECT 02-12 PANEL Field of Environment John C. Williams, Ricondo & Associates, San Francisco, CA (Chair) Kim Marie Berry, General Mitchell International Airport - Milwaukee County (WI), Milwaukee, WI Eric Freed, John Wayne Airport, Irvine, CA Scott C. Herndon, Aerodyne Research Inc., Billerica, MA Jason L. Schwartz, Port of Portland (OR) - Portland International Airport, Portland, OR Janet K. Tinoco, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL Ebad Jahangir, Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, CT Sandy Liu, FAA Liaison Christine Gerencher, TRB Liaison

F O R E W O R D By Lawrence D. Goldstein Staff Officer Transportation Research Board Airport operators use noise abatement departure procedures (NADP) to minimize the impact of noise on surrounding communities; however, while decreasing noise impacts, these procedures may result in other adverse environmental and operational effects. Possible effects include increased fuel burn, increased air emissions, and reduced airport capacity. In turn, reduced capacity can result in travel delays, especially during adverse conditions. With the advent of quieter aircraft and improved modeling capabilities, there is an opportunity to re­evaluate NADPs to take into account potential environmental effects and fuel consumption while continuing to minimize noise impacts on surrounding communities. ACRP Report 86 was conceived in response to this opportunity, with the objective of creating a protocol for evaluating and optimizing aircraft departure procedures in terms of noise exposure, emis­ sions, and fuel burn. This research concludes that, although noise, emissions, and fuel burn are often thought to increase or decrease in opposite directions, this is not always the case. In fact, depending on a variety of factors that include ground tracks, flight profiles, aircraft type, and nearby population, simultaneous reductions in noise, emissions, and fuel burn can be achieved. In addition to the report, the product of the research includes a spreadsheet­based electronic tool, the Departure Optimization Investigation Tool (DOIT), which allows users to under­ stand and test tradeoffs among various impact measures, including noise levels, rate of fuel consumption, and emissions. The overall approach is based on changes in aircraft departure tracks, manipulating airport fleet mix, and varying other operational parameters. The audi­ ence for this research and the spreadsheet tool consists of airport operators, their supporting consultants, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other research institutions. The topic is timely and especially important as the FAA’s “Next Generation Air Transportation System” (NextGen) technologies come on line and as more and more airports invest in developing sustainability programs while they push to improve capacity and maintain, if not decrease, environmental impacts. With continued introduction of significantly quieter aircraft, it is becoming increasingly possible to optimize or potentially eliminate NADPs without generating adverse noise impacts and while increasing fuel efficiency and minimizing adverse air emissions. Introduction of these new technologies may allow a change from NADPs to more direct routing, which can help increase airport capacity through more efficient operations. In addition, given an increasing focus on climate change, a decrease in fuel consumption coupled with a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions can help improve the overall carbon footprint of an airport. Efforts to reduce fuel consumption can broadly fit in two categories: aircraft/engine design improvements and air traffic optimization. With respect to optimization of air traf­ fic, effort to date has primarily focused on the enroute flight phase. In contrast, this report

focuses on how variations in departure procedures can affect airports and airport com­ munities more directly. For air traffic optimization, the focus of FAA’s NextGen has been on reducing flight time. Reduced flight times generally translate into aircraft engines burn­ ing less fuel and emitting fewer pollutants; however, for short­haul flights, fuel consumed enroute can be less than 50% of the total fuel burn. Arrivals and departures have received less attention, despite the possibility that they can achieve significant reductions in fuel use as well as reductions in noise exposure and air quality impacts. Application of departure optimization procedures can help respond to these continuing and growing concerns.

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 3 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 1.1. Background 3 1.2. Project Scope and Goals 4 1.3. Report Structure 5 Chapter 2 Project Background 5 2.1. NADPs and Other Terminology 6 2.2. Literature Review 7 2.3. Qualitative Assessment of Tradeoffs 14 Chapter 3 Case Study Analyses 14 3.1. Approach 14 3.2. Turn Restrictions 18 3.3. Multi­Turn NAP Routing 22 3.4. Climb Procedures 22 3.5. NADP Profiles 27 3.6. Fanning 27 3.7. Conclusions 37 Chapter 4 Optimization Tool 37 4.1. Introduction 37 4.2. Tool Description and Design 42 4.3. Tool Interface 54 References 56 Appendix A Literature Review 64 Appendix B Testing Protocol for Case Studies 72 Appendix C Capacity Modeling Protocol 78 Appendix D Noise Abatement Departures and Runway Throughput Analysis 81 Appendix E Optimization Tool Scenario and Examples