A Methodology for Calculating Greenhouse Effect of Aircraft Cruise Using Genetic Algorithm-Optimized Wavelet Neural Network

Abstract

Reliable assessment on the environmental impact of aircraft operation is vital for the performance evaluation and sustainable development of civil aviation. A new methodology for calculating the greenhouse effect of aircraft cruise is proposed in this paper. With respect to both cruise strategies and wind factors, a genetic algorithm-optimized wavelet neural network topology is designed to model the fuel flow-rate and developed using the real flight records data. Validation tests demonstrate that the proposed model with preferred network architecture can outperform others investigated in this paper in terms of accuracy and stability. Numerical examples are illustrated using 9 flights from Beijing Capital International Airport to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft on October 2, 2019, and the generated fuel consumption, CO2 and NOx emissions as well as temperature change for different time horizons can be effectively given through the proposed methodology, which helps in the environmental performance evaluation and future trajectory planning for aircraft cruise.