|
|
|
|
How Can Wake Vortex Separation Standards Be Revised? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The third annual workshop on wake vortex research was hosted by EUROCONTROL at the Experimental Centre on the 29th and 30th November, 2005. The subject discussed during the two days was “How can wake vortex separation standards be revised?”. The wake vortex team, working in the Airport Throughput (APT) research area, as well as staff members in support and communication functions contributed to making this a very successful event.
Wake vortex research aims at finding both theoretical and practical evidence that will make it possible to safely adjust current separation minima in accordance with local day-to-day meteorological conditions at an airport. For instance in strong winds it is expected that there will be faster transport and decay of the wake vortex, thus allowing for shorter separations between aircraft.
The need for change was addressed by speakers from airport and airline operations describing the real demand for new and more flexible separation standards. Next the floor was given to the rule makers and safety experts and an interesting discourse on safety assessment methods took place. A key question is whether a relative safety assessment is enough, as we know that the present separation distances very rarely lead to fatal accidents, or should the present standards also be reviewed in an absolute assessment, and if so, does every aircraft type need to be assessed separately? The difference in these two means of safety assessment is of course immense and to do an absolute comparison is probably too complicated and time consuming to be feasible.
The researchers then explained their findings and their view on data collecting, modeling and prediction of wake vortex behaviour, as well as aircraft encounter risk assessment methods.
Detailed descriptions of the operations at London Heathrow and the plans for operational trials ended the core round of presentations.
As WakeNet2-Europe is funded by the European Commission this was also the time to present the final report of this three year long project. It was concluded that WakeNet has been a very efficient way to bring researchers and operational experts closer together and the concrete result has been more focused and better coordinated research. Due to the close collaboration between WakeNet-USA and WakeNet2-Europe very fruitful cooperation has now been established between Europe and the USA.
All the attendees had the opportunity to visit the EEC Real-Time Simulation platform and get an overview of the ongoing Gate-to-Gate simulations.
The next steps for wake vortex related research are described in the Wake vortex research needs for improved wake vortex separation ruling and reduced wake signatures document which will become available on the WakeNet2-Europe web site (see below) in the near future. The main recommendations for future research are:
- To perform on site experiments in order to quantify capacity and effectiveness gains. On site trials and data collection will also give an important input to improved modeling and will help identify what has to be done in the safety case.
- To further compare and validate modelling methods.
- To investigate the possibility of onboard detection as well as the enhancement of ground equipment to cover all weather situations.
|
| |
|
 |
|
Last validation: 23/02/2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
