Airline planning and scheduling: Models and solution methodologies

The airline industry is a representative industry with high cost and low profitability. Therefore, airlines should carefully plan their schedules to ensure that overall profit is maximized. We review the literature on airline planning and scheduling and focus on mathematical formulations and solution methodologies. Our research framework is anchored on three major problems in the airline scheduling, namely, fleet assignment, aircraft routing, and crew scheduling. General formulation, widely used solution approaches, and important extensions are presented for each problem and integrated problems. We conclude the review by identifying promising areas for further research.     

Manpower supply planning for aircraft line maintenance under stochastic incidents

We plan the manpower supply for aircraft line maintenance, taking into account two types of stochastic incidents: manpower demands for a flight and the number of aircraft needing to be serviced at one time. The problem is solved to find the shift and maintenance group combinations best suited for the given airline. The optimal aircraft maintenance certification for a crew is also analyzed to improve the entire manpower structure. In addition, the addition of temporary manpower required for actual daily operations is also considered as a part of understanding the total manpower utilized in actual operations. An integrated method including scenario generation and a stochastic model is developed to deal with the problem. Finally, we perform a case study based on operating data obtained from a major airline in Taiwan. The results and findings are compared with the airline’s current manpower plan in the discussion, and suggestions for improvement are made.     

Structural load alleviation using distributed delay shaper: Application to flexible aircraft

Lightweight flexible aircraft suffers from unwanted oscillatory vibrations during aircraft manoeuvres. A recently developed distributed-delay signal (DZV) shaper is therefore proposed to be applied as a feedforward controller to alleviate the manoeuvre loads, as an alternative to traditional structural filters used routinely in this context. Structural filters are essentially linear low-pass filters with bandwidth below the significant flexible modes, applied to control signals generated either by the pilot’s direct input or by the flight control system. It has been showed that if instead a properly tuned signal shaper is used, better performance can be achieved: first, the target modes are significantly attenuated while the responsiveness of the aircraft is less compromised and secondly, the oscillatory nature of the vibrations are reduced. The high fidelity simulation results on a full scaled dynamic model of a highly flexible blended wing–body (BWB) aircraft show that in comparison to traditional structural filters, signal shapers significantly reduce the wing root loading (forces and moments) which provides potential structural benefits.     

航班恢复问题的迭代局部搜索算法

在恶劣天气和机械故障等原因造成航班不能按照原计划执行时，航空公司需要采取相应的措施对航班进行恢复。本文基于经典的资源指派模型，综合考虑了调整时间、换机、联程拉直、取消航班和调机5种恢复策略，提出一种以最小化加权成本为优化目标的航班恢复模型，并设计一种迭代局部搜索算法。首先用构造-修复启发式方法构造可行解，然后从该初始解出发，在飞机路线对的邻域中进行局部搜索。当陷入局部最优后，对解进行扰动，然后从扰动后的解重新出发进行局部搜索。为了提高搜索效率，同时降低陷入局部最优解的概率，局部搜索过程采用模拟退火算法。实例结果表明，本文提出的模型及算法能够在短时间内对受到影响的大规模航班计划进行恢复。     

Detection and mitigation of actuator attacks on small unmanned aircraft systems

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are susceptible to malicious attacks originated by intelligent adversaries, and the actuators constitute one of the critical attack surfaces. In this paper, the problem of detecting and mitigating attacks on the actuators of a small UAS is addressed. Three possible solutions of differing complexity and effectiveness are proposed to address the problem. The first method involves an active detection strategy, whereby carefully designed excitation signals are superimposed on the control commands to increase the detectability of the attack. In the second method, an unknown input observer is designed, which in addition to detecting the attack also estimates the magnitude of the attack. The third method entails designing an actuator system that makes use of variable frequency pulse-width modulated signals to improve the resilience of the actuator against malicious attacks. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated using flight experiments and realistic MATLAB simulations that incorporate exogenous disturbances, such as steady winds, atmospheric turbulence, and measurement noise.     

基于C#的飞机疲劳试验实时预警系统设计

为满足飞机疲劳试验对试验数据实时监控的需求,采用C#语言开发了一套飞机疲劳试验实时预警系统。该系统以疲劳试验数据管理系统为基础,计算各测量点、各工况的平均值和标准差,通过多种方法设定预警阈值。该系统界面友好、功能完备,可实现疲劳试验数据的实时监控,能够及时发现异常试验数据,尽早发现结构损伤并采取有效措施,可以大幅降低维修成本、缩短维修周期。     

Assessment of NOx emissions of the Scimitar engine at Mach 5 based on a thermodynamic cycle analysis

The Scimitar engine is a new advanced propulsion system designed to propel the aircraft A2 of the LAPCAT project. It is a hybrid system that utilizes the features of turbofan, ramjet and air-turborocket. Hydrogen and air are used as the fuel and oxidant, respectively, while helium is used to transfer heat from the hot incoming air to the hydrogen in the engine. In this study, we present a thermodynamic cycle analysis of the Scimitar engine for the assessment of NO_x emissions. The combustion of fuel is studied in detail with an equilibrium model taking into account various dissociation and formation reactions since high levels of temperatures are achieved in its combustion chamber. The NO_x emissions of the engine at Mach 5 and the effects of fuel and air flow rates, cruise speed and altitude on these emissions are presented by solving a nonlinear system of equations formed through our novel thermodynamic model. The results show that the NO emissions of the engine can be diminished significantly by decreasing air flow rate, cruise speed and altitude and by increasing the fuel flow rate. The variations of NO₂ emissions with these parameters are similar except the variation with altitude which has an inverse effect as compared to the variation of NO.     

高速飞行器燃油热管理系统飞行热航时

目前高速飞行器机载热负荷呈指数上升趋势，而由于气动加热作用，机身温度随航时增长也持续上升，这两者严重限制了高速飞行器的续航时间和电子设备的使用时长。燃油作为飞行器所必须携带的大比热容液体工质，是机载热沉的优选。燃油热沉利用会受气动加热、耗油量、飞行时长的综合影响。本文以机载燃油热沉为核心，研究高速飞行器燃油热管理系统参数设计对飞行热航时的影响。建立了燃油-消耗性冷却剂热利用系统的动态特性方程，并提出热航时的概念以衡量热负荷作用下燃油不发生超温的飞行时长，详细讨论了上述各影响因素与热利用系统参数对热航时的影响。上述研究可为高速飞行器热管理系统设计选型提供参考。     

某型运输机飞行状态下冷凝器风道性能

以某型运输机蒸发循环制冷系统用冷凝器为研究对象，分析了运输机与直升机、小型通航飞机蒸发循环制冷系统工作环境的区别，应用Star CCM+软件进行了仿真建模，通过对冷凝器风道的流体仿真分析，阐述了飞行状态下引起蒸发循环制冷系统压力故障的原因，在此基础上提出了冷凝器风道优化方案，并应用流体仿真分析的方法，验证了优化方案的有效性，最后在该运输机上进行了试飞验证。     

飞机蒙皮材料在醋酸钾型除冰液中腐蚀行为研究

目的 评价醋酸钾型除冰液能否用于飞机除冰以及对飞机蒙皮材料腐蚀性的影响。方法 采用AutoLab电化学工作站对飞机蒙皮材料在不同浓度缓蚀剂、无缓蚀剂醋酸钾型除冰液中的干湿交替腐蚀电化学行为进行分析，通过扫描电镜观察其腐蚀前后表面形貌及涂层/基体金属界面形貌。结果 无缺陷飞机蒙皮涂层在除冰液中的阻抗模值高达2.78×1010 Ω?cm2，而缺陷涂层的阻抗模值只有1.72×107 Ω?cm2，说明缺陷破坏了涂层的完整性，降低了涂层的阻抗模值，明显加速了飞机蒙皮材料的腐蚀。带缺陷飞机蒙皮试样经除冰液腐蚀不同周期后的低频区Rct存在较大变化，试样在高浓度无缓蚀剂除冰液中的Rct始终低于在低浓度溶液中的Rct；试验初期，试样在高浓度除冰液中的Rct较大，说明此时缓蚀剂浓度较高，缓蚀作用明显；但随着腐蚀周期的延长，Rct逐渐减小，说明缓蚀剂逐渐失效，高浓度除冰液的腐蚀性逐渐增强并高于低浓度除冰液。腐蚀实验后，飞机蒙皮涂层表面和涂层/基体金属界面处存在一定的腐蚀产物；人造缺陷破坏了涂层的完整性，降低了涂层的结合力，甚至产生局部剥离，造成除冰液浸入，在划痕处发生了较严重的膜下腐蚀。结论 醋酸钾型除冰液对飞机蒙皮材料存在一定的腐蚀性，尤其是当涂层存在缺陷时，腐蚀较为严重。