Research on air route network nodes optimization with avoiding the three areas

Abstract

For the sake of easing the large-area flight delays and relieving the increasing pressure of the safe operation due to growing air traffic, the optimization model of air route network (ARN for short) nodes was established with avoiding “three areas” (prohibited area PA for short, restricted area RA for short, danger area DA for short) under the condition of flight safety and operating cost. The objective function was the shortest path of ARN in this model, and the cellular automata (CA) model with fixed boundary and the neighbors of Moore was used to find solution for the model. As a case study, flight paths A596, B458 and H33 in the busy airspace of ZBPE (Beijing Flight Information Area) were selected. Under the condition of the current flight flow, radar control operation interval of 20km, standard cruise speed of 800km/h and no controller’s intervention, the optimization design of ARN nodes was accomplished successfully with avoiding the three areas. The number of the nodes was reduced by 10.526%, the probability of the flight conflict risk of the two important cross network nodes “Tian Zhen” and “Nan Cheng Zi” was reduced by 0.99% and 66.33% respectively, and their safety level is acceptable, total cost of flight path was reduced by 0.009%, and the nonlinear coefficient of ARN was reduced by 0.332%. The cost of the above mentioned optimization results was that the total distance of route segments was increased by 0.329%.The previous ARN planning methods pay more attention to the flight paths after planning, and their purposes are to get more convenient, efficient, or safer flight paths. China has a giant airspace with many three areas, and the three areas must be avoided in the process of ARN planning inevitably, which is not implemented in the previous work. CA model proposed in this paper improved the safety of the ARN. It also completed the ARN node optimization and avoided the three areas. It provided not only an effective solution method for the ongoing ARN planning and adjustment under China airspace management system, but also a new train of thought about ARN node optimization for other countries with similar airspace characteristics.