Decision-making strategies implemented in SolFinder 1.0 to identify eco-efficient aircraft trajectories

Application study in AirTraf 3.0

Journal Article (2024)
Author(s)

Federica Castino (TU Delft - Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects)

Feijia Yin (TU Delft - Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects)

Volker Grewe (TU Delft - Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR))

Hiroshi Yamashita (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR))

Sigrun Matthes (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR))

Simone Dietmüller (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR))

Sabine Baumann (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR))

Manuel Soler (Carlos III University of Madrid)

Abolfazl Simorgh (Carlos III University of Madrid)

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DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4031-2024 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2024
Language
English
Issue number
9
Volume number
17
Pages (from-to)
4031-4052
Downloads counter
272
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Abstract

The optimization of aircraft trajectories involves balancing operating costs and climate impact, which are often conflicting objectives. To achieve compromised optimal solutions, higher-level information such as preferences of decision-makers must be taken into account. This paper introduces the SolFinder 1.0 module, a decision-making tool designed to identify eco-efficient aircraft trajectories, which allow for the reduction of the flight's climate impact with limited cost penalties compared to cost-optimal solutions. SolFinder 1.0 offers flexible decision-making options that allow users to select trade-offs between different objective functions, including fuel use, flight time, NOx emissions, contrail distance, and climate impact. The module is included in the AirTraf 3.0 submodel, which optimizes trajectories under atmospheric conditions simulated by the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry model. This paper focuses on the ability of the module to identify eco-efficient trajectories while solving a bi-objective optimization problem that minimizes climate impact and operating costs. SolFinder 1.0 enables users to explore trajectory properties at varying locations of the Pareto fronts without prior knowledge of the problem results and to identify solutions that limit the cost of reducing the climate impact of a single flight.