NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
An optimization model for the US Air-Traffic SystemA systematic approach for monitoring U.S. air traffic was developed in the context of system-wide planning and control. Towards this end, a network optimization model with nonlinear objectives was chosen as the central element in the planning/control system. The network representation was selected because: (1) it provides a comprehensive structure for depicting essential aspects of the air traffic system, (2) it can be solved efficiently for large scale problems, and (3) the design can be easily communicated to non-technical users through computer graphics. Briefly, the network planning models consider the flow of traffic through a graph as the basic structure. Nodes depict locations and time periods for either individual planes or for aggregated groups of airplanes. Arcs define variables as actual airplanes flying through space or as delays across time periods. As such, a special case of the network can be used to model the so called flow control problem. Due to the large number of interacting variables and the difficulty in subdividing the problem into relatively independent subproblems, an integrated model was designed which will depict the entire high level (above 29000 feet) jet route system for the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. As a first step in demonstrating the concept's feasibility a nonlinear risk/cost model was developed for the Indianapolis Airspace. The nonlinear network program --NLPNETG-- was employed in solving the resulting test cases. This optimization program uses the Truncated-Newton method (quadratic approximation) for determining the search direction at each iteration in the nonlinear algorithm. It was shown that aircraft could be re-routed in an optimal fashion whenever traffic congestion increased beyond an acceptable level, as measured by the nonlinear risk function.
Document ID
19860017799
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Contractor Report (CR)
Authors
Mulvey, J. M. (Princeton Univ. NJ, United States)
Date Acquired
September 5, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1986
Subject Category
Aircraft Communications And Navigation
Report/Patent Number
NASA-CR-177277
NAS 1.26:177277
Accession Number
86N27271
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG1-520
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available