Wake vortex safety evaluation of single runway approaches under different weather and operational conditions

Wake vortex safety evaluation of single runway approaches under different weather and operational conditions

van Baren, G.B.
Speijker, L.J.P.
de Bruin, A.C.

National Aerospace Laboratory NLR

2002-02-28

The steady increase in air traffic imposes a need for enhanced airport capacity, and the desire to safely reduce existing separation minima. An important capacity constraint factor is the risk imposed by wake vortices. In view of the uncertainties and the difficulties in understanding the wake vortex phenomena, a novel WAke Vortex Induced Risk assessment (WAVIR) model has been developed to evaluate wake vortex induced risk. The probabilistic model incorporates submodels for wake vortex evolution, wake vortex encounter, and flight path evolution, and relates the severity of wake vortex encounters to incident / accident risk probability. The model is applied to evaluate the risk related to different separation distances between aircraft landing on a single runway. An extensive initial risk assessment is carried out to evaluate the impact of weather and wind conditions and procedural aspects on incident/accident risk. The risk assessment results are compared with proposed risk requirements to assess safe and appropriate separation distances. It is shown that a reduction of the current separation minima - and consequently an increase of capacity - might be possible under most operational and weather conditions. However, it is also shown that the separation distances might need to be increased under some particular weather conditions (e.g. low atmospheric turbulence).

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f0495c41-4e21-401d-a027-24ea548d052b

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium

Campus only

NLR Technical Publication TP 2002-077

Aerospace Engineering Reports

report

(c)2002 National Aerospace Laboratory NLR