Airport Terminal Building Research Articles

Life Cycle Assessment Analysis Based on Material Selection in Sustainable Airport Buildings

Sustainable airport buildings aim to minimize environmental impacts through energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste management. This is achieved by employing green building materials and utilizing renewable energy sources to reduce their carbon footprint. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of three main construction materials—concrete, steel, and wood—used in sustainable airport buildings. These materials were selected for their widespread use in eight different airport terminal buildings with sustainability certifications. The environmental impacts of these materials were calculated and compared using OpenLCA 1.9.0 software and the ECOinvent database, adhering to the standards set forth by the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) initiative. The findings indicate that wood, as a construction material, has a significantly lower impact on global warming compared to steel and concrete, with a global warming potential (GWP) ratio of less than 60%. Steel, with a GWP of approximately 90% of that of concrete, also showed a lower impact than concrete. Additionally, other environmental impacts, such as stratospheric ozone depletion potential (ODP) and acidification potential (AP), were also examined, highlighting the trade-offs associated with each material.

Medical Events Encountered at a Major International Airport and Health Services Provided.

INTRODUCTION: Travel by airline starts and ends at airports. Thousands of people consisting of passengers, relatives of passengers, and employees gather at airports every day. In this study, medical events (MEs) encountered at Istanbul Atatürk Airport (IAA) and health services provided were analyzed.METHODS: The MEs encountered in IAA between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2018, and health services provided by the private medical clinic in the airport terminal building were retrospectively analyzed.RESULTS: During the study period, 192,500,930 passengers traveled from the IAA and a total of 11,799 patients were seen at the clinic. There were 4898 (41.5%) male patients. The median age of the 9466 (80.2%) patients whose age was recorded was 34 (28-51) yr. Of 11,799 patients included in the present study, 9228 (78.21%) patients had medical complaints, 1122 (9.5%) patients had trauma complaints, 1180 patients (10%) were transferred to the hospital, and 269 (2.27%) patients required a certificate of preflight fitness. The most common medical complaint was gastrointestinal (1515 patients, 12.84%). The most common trauma was soft tissue injury (345 patients, 2.92%).DISCUSSION: MEs in airports can be as various and also critical as health conditions seen in emergency departments. It is important to provide medical services with an experienced medical team trained in aviation medicine and adequate medical equipment at airports.Ceyhan MA, Demir GG, Cömertpay E, Yıldırımer Y, Kurt NG. Medical events encountered at a major international airport and health services provided. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2024; 95(5):259-264.

Relationship between the terminal built environment and airport retail revenue

Non-aeronautical business, including airport retail, is an essential source of airport revenue. The locations of retail stores in an airport terminal building significantly impact their revenue. Based on the retail store-level data from Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport (DLC), the traditional panel data regression and machine learning methods were employed to explore the relationships between the terminal built environment and airport retail revenue. The results indicate the following: (1) non-linear relationships exist between airport retail store revenue and the terminal built environment. (2) Airport passenger traffic is still the principal factor in retail store revenue. (3) Variables including area, function halls, and per capita spending have different impacts on the revenue of food and beverage (F&B) and specialty retail (SR) stores. The optimal location sites for retail stores are as far away from the nearest washroom as possible while being as close to gates as possible.

A Wind Protection Design Strategy for Airport Terminal Door Bucket Space Based on Wind Environment Simulations

Airport terminal buildings are large public transportation buildings with complex functions and dense crowds, and the wind environment has significant effects on passenger comfort and the energy consumption of air conditioning systems. In this study, we investigated Xianyang T3 Terminal as an example and used the Phoenics software to conduct comprehensive simulations based on different door bucket forms and parameters, as well as comprehensively considering the impacts of different outdoor wind environments. A terminal door bucket windproof design strategy was proposed based on our results. The results showed that door buckets could effectively reduce the entry of outdoor wind, and built-in door buckets performed the best. The width of the door bucket should be set to 9.3–11.3 m and the depth of the door bucket to 6.7–7.7 m. The height of the door bucket had little impact. A side door should be added to the door bucket, so it can be opened when the outdoor wind speed is high, and a mechanical ventilation system should be introduced to improve the indoor ventilation.

Enhancing airport environmental sustainability through net zero energy building principles

Airports play a crucial role in Indonesia, an archipelagic country, by connecting various regions, especially those separated by vast oceans. The extensive scale of airport construction directly influences environmental conditions, making environmental preservation and sustainability essential considerations. Hence, implementing the net zero energy building principle in airports, particularly in Indonesia, becomes imperative to enhance environmental sustainability. This study focused on Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA), a facility that has achieved Greenship Gold certification, making it a suitable case for investigating the application of net zero energy building principles. Adapting the net zero building concept to complex airport structures presents challenges. Besides using rating tools, simulation modeling offers a performance-based approach to assess the application of net zero energy building principles effectively. We used quantitative method by utilizing software like EDGE to simulate net zero energy buildings and identify optimal performance strategies for YIA. The study’s outcomes comprised an analysis of the net zero energy building model, providing valuable insights for developing specific guidelines on net zero energy principles in airport terminal buildings. This research aimed to expand knowledge on net zero building performance at airports, contributing to the development of guidelines for net zero airport terminal criteria.

Modeling of Airport Check-in Units Architectural Design and Processing Time Standards with Fuzzy Approach

There is a number of architectural problems that airports must meet such as ensuring the circulation of passengers in terminal building quickly and shortening the time between flights. This is related to the concept of level of service (LOS) which aims to keep passengers in circulation at an affordable cost with minimum delay and maximum comfort without being exposed to congestion. LOS standards have been developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for density analysis of airport terminal buildings. However, with the increase in capacities and user density, there are gradual decreases in standards with sharp boundaries, and this situation is true in the context of strict limits but does not fully reflect reality. Besides, a fuzzy assumption has been made to the issue, both due to the fact that LOS are set with different values in standards published in different years, and to allow rapid and efficient analysis of density changes in unexpected situations. Within the scope of the study, the LOS standards of the check-in areas and sub-functions which are used extensively and host a large number of passengers are modeled in matlab program by means of fuzzy logic. Four independent mathematical models were created: a design decision support model for the architectural design related to the check-in section, and three models for the check-in sub-functions, processing times and areas for business performance. In the models, output data were obtained for each input data and LOS could be determined by interpreting these outputs degree of representation.

Characterizing cooling load in multi-area airport terminal buildings: Clustering and uncertainty analysis for energy flexibility

An airport terminal building is a complex public transportation facility with an extremely high energy consumption intensity. Its numerous indoor areas with various functions have disparate characteristics of cooling loads, which poses a great challenge to energy-efficient design and operation of its air-conditioning system. In this paper, we investigated the characteristics of cooling loads in two typical multi-area airport terminal buildings by simulation. Clustering analysis was utilized to categorize the areas based on their distinct cooling load characteristics. Uncertainty analysis and Bayesian calibration were employed to reveal and compare the impact of primary parameters on these cooling loads. The indoor area of an airport terminal building can be classified into three categories according to their different characteristics of cooling loads. The result shows that outdoor temperature (Tout), outdoor relative humidity (RHout), and air change rate(α) significantly contribute to the variances among the cooling loads in different areas. The peak cooling loads of the three categories were identified as 182.8 W/m2, 76.1 W/m2, and 58.3 W/m2, respectively. The Bayesian calibration result demonstrates that the differences of the main parameters (i.e., Tin and RHin) between operation and design are the key factors causing the difference of cooling load between measurement and design. The potential for flexible cooling load adjustment across different area categories was also discussed, contributing to further quantification of the energy flexibility potential of airport terminal buildings. The unique value of this paper is manifested in the new approach it provides for understanding and managing cooling loads, contributing to more energy-efficient terminal design and operation.

Energy Performance Evaluation of Domestic Airport Departure Hall TIA, Kathmandu

This research focuses on the energy performance of the building envelope of an Airport Terminal Building in Kathmandu, Nepal. This study explores how to improve thermal comfort Energy analysis through a quantitative analysis of the effect of thermal characteristics of the building envelope. Development of base model Revit and duplicated in Autodesk Insight. This study is about the operational electricity consumption, Peak Heating/cooling load and Energy use intensity of the building at domestic departure hall at Tribhuvan International Airport, Building envelops systems pose a great scope to reduce the energy consumption and consequently improve building efficiency. This research is concern with reduction of operational electricity consumption on Heating and cooling system Most part of the energy consumption is occupied by HVAC system and this consumption needs to be optimized to reduce whole energy consumption of the buildings.

Impacts of PM on Indoor Air Quality of Airport Terminal Buildings in a Core City of North China Plain

With the economic growth and globalization, a great deal of airports are being or planned to be constructed or retrofitted in China. The air quality in airport terminal buildings has not been studied as in-depth as airport ambient air quality. Due to its unique architectural and operational characteristics, the airport terminal buildings have individual performance of indoor air quality. The contribution of outdoor particulate matter (PM) to indoor environment and passengers’ exposure to indoor PM is not well understood. The indoor (i.e., terminal buildings) and outdoor PM concentrations with particle sizes from 0.25 to 32 μm of Tianjin Binhai International Airport (IATA: TSN) were monitored continuously during two cases in winter and summer 2020. Higher indoor PM concentrations occurred in winter as well as in the arrival halls of TSN. During winter case, the indoor sources contributed more to the indoor environment than the outdoor sources, whereas the opposite was found during summer case. Sharp variation of indoor PM number concentrations existed in particles within the range of 0.25–0.40 μm in size, with a peak number concentration at particle size of about 0.30 μm. PM with smaller particle sizes were more likely to enter the indoor environment from outdoor. The comprehensive exposure in the TSN terminal buildings was higher than those in the transportation microenvironments, residences and other buildings. Significant diurnal variations of Respiratory deposition dose (RDD) were observed under various exposure durations. Our results highlight the need for further monitoring and improving the air quality in the terminal buildings.

Construction technology on dismantlement and reconstruction of point supported glass curtain wall for airport terminal building

Based on the corridor channel curtain wall reconstruction project at Wuhan Tianhe airport T2-T3 terminal building, the structural system of point supported glass curtain wall with cable structure 18 years ago was analyzed, the technical difficulties of curtain wall glass panel removal and bearing cable removal were studied, and technical measures for the dismantlement and reconstruction of point supported glass curtain wall with cable structure were reasonably proposed. During the construction process of the dismantlement and reconstruction, the curtain wall structure was dynamically monitored, the deformation of the monitoring points were small, and the construction process was in a safe state. Due to the success in the dismantlement and reconstruction control technology of the point supported glass curtain wall with cable structure in this project, it not only ensured the construction safety, but also improved the construction quality, which could provide a reference for other similar projects.

Optimization of an Airport Departure Hall Evacuation Plan Based on a Time-Varying Network Algorithm

As a highly dense area for passengers, the airport departure hall is particularly characterized by the easy gathering of passengers, irregularity, and difficulty in command, which has become a high incidence of emergencies. For the evacuation problem in case of emergencies, the vast majority of passengers randomly choose the shortest path from the exit to escape, which will lead to congestion at some nodes and prolonging of the evacuation time. Therefore, this study proposes a better evacuation method considering the dynamic change in the spatiotemporal congestion of passengers. First, this paper constructs an evacuation network diagram for the departure hall of the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport terminal building, simplifies the evacuation process into point-to-point evacuation, and proposes a time-varying network algorithm to optimize the emergency evacuation of the airport. Second, on the premise of obtaining the number and dynamic distribution of passengers in each area in real time, a linear programming model with the shortest evacuation time as the optimization objective is established, and the current optimal evacuation path of passengers is dynamically calculated. Finally, the two evacuation methods, random evacuation and evacuation, based on a time-varying network algorithm are simulated and analyzed by AnyLogic software. The results show that the evacuation scheme based on the time-varying network algorithm can effectively relieve the passenger congestion of some evacuation paths and safety exits. The evacuation time is reduced by 74 s, the evacuation efficiency is improved by 14%, passenger congestion at some evacuation routes and safety exits can be effectively relieved, and the global optimization of the emergency evacuation of passengers is achieved.

Security Control Process Modeling During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Example Of Esenboğa Airport

Airport facilities are places where constantly updated measures, regulations and improvements are implemented. Simulation modeling plays an important role in ensuring the high efficiency and user friendliness of such arrangements. Especially in recent years, simulation has become an indispensable need for the aviation industry. Contrary to traditional theories, the simulation approach reveals a more realistic system behavior analysis. One of the most important operations carried out at airports is undoubtedly the security checkpoints. Simulation of airport security checkpoints is the basis for more efficient use of these service points, improving the service level, identifying bottlenecks in the system and producing solutions. In this study, it is aimed to calculate the delay and queue data created by the precautions and regulations applied in the Esenboğa Airport terminal building after the Covid-19 pandemic, at the security checkpoint after the visa checkpoint. In the study, it is aimed to determine the problems that can be caused by the precautions and regulations taken in airport security by modeling the security control process after the Covid-19 pandemic by using the simulation method. The simulation model was created by taking expert opinions in accordance with the operation carried out at the airport. Finally, the results of the simulation model were evaluated, and suggestions were made to the airport stakeholders.

Life-Cycle Approach to Healthy Airport Terminal Buildings: Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Mitigation Strategies for Addressing the Pollutants that Affect Climate Change and Human Health

The potential environmental and human health impacts associated with constructing and operating terminal buildings is explored for commercial airports in the United States. Research objectives are to quantify: (1) baseline and mitigated greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria air pollutant (CAP) emissions; (2) operational costs; and (3) climate change damages from terminal building construction and materials, operational energy consumption, water consumption and wastewater generation, and solid waste generation. An Excel-based decision-support tool, Airport Terminal Environmental Support Tool (ATEST), has been created to allow stakeholders to conduct preliminary assessments of current baseline and potential mitigated impacts. Emissions are quantified using a life-cycle approach that accounts for cradle-to-grave effects. Climate change and human health indicators are characterized using EPA’s Tool for Reduction and Assessment of Chemical Impact (TRACI) factors. ATEST is applied to multiple case study airports— Reno/Tahoe International (RNO), Pittsburgh International (PIT), Newark Liberty International (EWR), Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA), San Francisco International (SFO), and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL)—to demonstrate its scalability and capability to assess varying spatial factors. Across all airports, electricity mix and construction are significant in determining GHG and CAP emissions, respectively. A sensitivity analysis of GHG emissions for the SFO case study reveals that the electricity mix, amount of electricity consumed within the terminal, terminal gross area, and amount of compostables in the solid waste stream have the most impact on increasing annual GHG emissions. ATEST represents a crucial first step in helping stakeholders to make decisions that will lead to healthier, more sustainable airport terminals.

Green Airport building certification comparison: a practical approach for Airport Management

ABSTRACT In this study, six certificates have proposed and three of them used by airport terminal building to analyze, measure, and score environmental damage were compared. Certifications handled in the study are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment for Building Environmental Efficiency), SBTool (Sustainable Building Tool), ACA (Airport Carbon Accreditation) and Green Airport and Green Company certificates. As a result, this research gathered the most widely used certificates in the literature. In addition, the Green Airport and Green Company certificate, the first green airport certificate in Turkiye, was added to the study for comparison, which has been offered just for airports. Hong Kong International Airport’s sustainability report was examined to determine how many points it would have received if it had applied for the most widely used LEED, BREEAM, and Green Airport and Green Company Certificates regarding the reported activities. The results have shown that the energy and atmosphere category is vital for all certification systems. Also, the study reveals that LEED gets 89.09 over 100 points, BREEAM 93.1 over 100 points, and Green Airport 75 over 100 points which display BREEAM to get a higher environmental response. This study aims to guide green building practices to decision-makers, which has become necessary in many countries. Employees and managers want to know the quality and quantity of sustainable tasks or planning at airports.

Airport terminal building capacity evaluation using queuing system

Queues or waiting lines are a natural occurrence in the everyday lives of consumers and the process of every business. Being customers' first point of contact with the business, a customer’s experience in the queue becomes a determining factor of their first impression of the business. Queuing provides the cornerstone of efficiency to businesses as they assist employees and managers in tracking, prioritising, and ensuring the delivery of services and transactions. Inefficiencies in queues are undesired as they can result in substantial losses to a business, such as bad reputation and loss of customers due to balking or reneging behaviour.Previous research has shown that the application of queuing theory enables businesses to analyse their queuing system and the trends of demand for their services. This allows the business to effectively identify measures to improve their queuing system and serve demand at the desired level of service.In this paper, where it examined Cairo International Airport (CAI)’s existing departure queue system and benchmarked it against the optimum wait time suggested in the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Level of Service (LoS) concept. The application of Kendall-Lee’s Notation is applied to describe the existing queuing system of the airport. It also suggested areas of improvement after the analysis and recommended that the CAI focus on improving service time for its Check-in, Security, and Boarding process. Although the Immigration process has met IATA’s recommended optimal wait time, training could be provided to employees to enable them to progressively work towards a better service time and prepare for the future higher traffic volume. The team has also suggested for CAI to introduce autonomous technology for the departure process and software which analyses passenger flow and projects a forecast value based on the airport growth trends.

Numerical evaluation on indoor environment quality during high numbers of occupied passengers in the departure hall of an airport terminal

The rapid development of airports and the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have brought increased attention to indoor environment quality, airflow organization, key pollutant dispersion, and ventilation modes in airport terminals. However, the characteristics of these parameters, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) and aerosol diffusion, are not fully understood. Therefore, in this study, the airflow patterns; CO2 and aerosol dispersion; and several thermal environment indices, including temperature, wind velocity, and predicted mean vote (PMV), of an airport terminal departure hall with high numbers of occupied passenger were numerically evaluated using the realizable k-ε and passive scalar models. The efficacies of three common ventilation modes, namely, up-supply and up-return, up-supply and down-return with different sides, and up-supply and down-return with the same side, were evaluated based on the CO2 removal efficiency and spreading range of aerosols. The results indicated that under high numbers of occupied passenger conditions, these ventilation modes vary slightly, with respect to create a comfortable and healthy environment. In particular, the up-supply and down-return with different sides mode was the best among the modes considered, when comparing the indices of temperature, wind speed PMV, and CO2 emission efficiency. Conversely, with respect to decreasing the risk of aerosol exposure, the up-supply and down-return with the same side mode was the best. Overall, the results from this study provide fundamental information for predicting CO2 and aerosol exposure levels and will act as a reference for the design and operation of ventilation systems in airport terminal buildings.

Simulation Modelling of Roof Design of Indonesian Airport Terminal For Optimal Utilization of Cooling Energy

The airport terminal is one of buildings with complex energy needs. Most of the airport terminals in Indonesia are designed with regional architectural features, such as pitched or joglo roofs and exterior wall materials made of brick with paint finish. The new airport is designed with modern architectural characteristics with flat and curved roofs and outer walls made of Aluminum Composite Panel (ACP). The difference of shape, material, and the size of fenestration affects the thermal performance of the building and affects the cooling energy used. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of roof designs on airport terminals in Indonesia that have different characteristics on the use of cooling energy. The effect of roof design on cooling energy analyzed by using Design Builder simulation. The simulation results show that the combination of red tile pitched roof and flat concrete roof with insulation in airport terminal building with Indonesian characteristics has the lowest cooling energy performance.

How can green building certification systems cope with the era of climate emergency and pandemics?

According to the second law of thermodynamics, all human activities cause exergy destructions, adding to additional root causes for carbon dioxide emissions responsibility. It means that current carbon dioxide concentrations are accurately observed, but the root causes and their potential solutions against global warming fall short of achieving the goals of the Paris agreement by almost 45% in terms of decarbonization efforts, as shown in this paper. This result applies to all activities, including the green facility concept. In this respect, the primary aim of this paper is to raise awareness about the essence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in expanding the green facility concept to reach more effective and sustainable rating methodologies concerning the climate crisis. A new evaluating and rating model with a set of exergy-based green building metrics that relate additional carbon dioxide emissions to irreversible exergy destructions has been developed. Examples about apparently green buildings according to the First Law of Thermodynamics are given by showing that these buildings are not green due to additional carbon dioxide emissions responsibility due to exergy destructions. An airport terminal building case is elaborated. It has been shown that although part of the electricity comes from a third-party wind energy provider, it ends up with carbon dioxide emissions responsibility because it is not entirely used in exergy-rational demand points and compares less favorably with an on-site cogeneration system using natural gas by about 30% more emissions responsibility. The results and derivations of new metrics are discussed, which shed light on adding new criteria to existing green building certification programs.

Utilize BIM Technology for Achiveing Sustainable Passengers Terminal in Baghdad International Airport

The construction of airport infrastructures usually consumes huge amount of energy. In fact, the airport buildings are among the largest energy consumers entities due to their huge size and special operation pattern as well as their unique configuration that facilitate the large number of accommodated passengers. Despite the local energy shortage in Iraq in the last two decades, there is a quite scarce number of researches that deal with sustainable airport buildings. The aim of this research is to analyze the terminal building in Baghdad International Airport in order to find out the best set of modifications that result in an optimal energy consumption and least carbon dioxide emissions. The analysis was conducted by the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology and the associated programs such as; Auto desk Revit 2021 and Auto desk Insight 360, in order to determine the optimal strategies by which the most applicable alternative construction materials and procedures are considered in order to obtain an environmentally and economically sustainable airport terminal buildings. By applying this analysis on Nineveh terminal building in Baghdad International Airport revealed that many alternatives are capable of making tangible reduction in the Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Such reductions are noticed when altering, in the optimum manner, the windows configurations in terms of size, glazing type, and shadings. The alteration of construction materials for walls and roofs also reduces the EUI. It was also found out that the change in lighting control systems and lighting efficiency may reduce EUI. But the major impact could be resulted when altering the Heating/Ventilating/ Air conditioning Systems (HVAC) in the optimum manner which reduces the EUI by 67.15kw/m2/year, and the proper use of photovoltaic panels which provides a sustainable electricity and reduces EUI by 57.08 kWh/m2/year. Accordingly; in the quest of the best procedure to develop a sustainable terminal building, it is highly recommended to alter the HVAC systems and the utilization of the photovoltaic panels on rooftops.

Reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions of HVAC system in airport terminal buildings

Airport terminal buildings consume more energy than other buildings in an airport due to their functional and operational characteristics. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems have been major energy consumers with a significant contribution to the annual total energy consumption in terminal buildings particularly in harsh climates. Therefore, improvement of energy efficiency of the HVAC system is becoming an increasingly important issue to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions of existing terminal buildings. The aim of this study is to analyze and evaluate the effect of various energy conservation strategies on energy consumption and CO2 emissions, including a number of modifications that can be applied to the HVAC system of airport terminal buildings. Erzurum Airport terminal building, located in the coldest climate zone of Turkey, was chosen as the airport terminal building. In order to achieve this goal, six strategies that can create energy savings and cost savings and provide environmental benefits were analyzed and evaluated by building energy simulation. The results indicated that energy consumption could be reduced from 6.3 GWh/year to 2.7 GWh/year and CO2 emissions from 1.9 million kg/year to 0.9 million kg/year by implementing feasible energy conservation strategies. This means that, by implementing the proposed energy-saving projects, energy consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced by 57.24% and 48.79%, respectively.