A study on modeling techniques for fuel burn estimation based on flight simulator experiment data

The ever-increasing demand for global air travel has created many daunting challenges for the aviation industry. The estimation of fuel consumption is integral to the evaluation of aircraft performance, which is in turn vital to developing key components of future air traffic management systems. In this study, a framework for the quantitative estimation of fuel burn was established with the objective of developing a modeling technique for accurately assessing aircraft performance. Data from a series of continuous descent operations simulations conducted on a full-flight simulator were used as reference data. Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) (aircraft performance model data) provided by Eurocontrol were used together with point mass dynamics to estimate the fuel flow for both clean and non-clean aircraft configurations. Results revealed that it could accurately estimate the total fuel consumption to within ±6% of the actual value, and the cruise and descent fuel consumptions to within ±6% and ±10%, respectively.