A Framework for the Assessment of Distributed Self-Separation Procedures for Air Traffic in Flow Corridors

The flow corridor is a tube-shape class of airspace designed for the future air transportation system, which aims to reduce complexity, restructuring the airspace to provide more system capacity. In order to support operational procedures design towards increased operational efficiency in the flow corridor, an accurate assessment of alternative procedures is a pre-requisite. This paper proposes a dynamic stochastic simulation framework including various microscopic behaviors for the assessment of distributed self-separation procedures for the air traffic in flow corridors. We first specify three prominent self-separation modes which distinguish flow corridors from today's airways system, and present detailed self-separation procedures and algorithms in a parallel-lane flow corridor incorporating self-separating, lane-passing and lane-switch behaviors based on the aircraft dynamic model and the proportional derivative control theory. Then, incorporating these self-separation algorithms, a dynamic stochastic simulation modeling framework is constructed to assess and compare the alternative distributed self-separation procedures. The framework is applied to a parallel-lane flow corridor deployed from Beijing nearby airports (ZBAA, ZBTJ and ZBNY) to Guangzhou nearby airports (ZGGG, ZGSZ and ZGSD) in China, and the self-separation procedures were thoroughly assessed with both realistic and simulated data for benefits assessment and sensitivity analysis. Results show that the speed-based operational procedure is more suitable for high-density operations while the other two procedures have more flexibility which can be used for air traffic flow contingency management and/or trajectory management.