Multi-objective optimisation of aircraft departure trajectories

A multi-objective trajectory optimisation has been developed to minimise multiple environmental impacts (noise and exhaust emissions) from commercial airplanes. Three different non-gradient algorithms are used. First, a parameterization method is established for airplane departure trajectories, with path constraints considered where necessary. Second, a method to parameterize movement in the lateral plane based on a Bézier curve has been proposed to decrease the number of free parameters. The environmental impacts on target areas have been simulated by a comprehensive flight mechanics program. Finally, two posterior selection strategies based on preference function and monetisation approaches are used to evaluate the resulting Pareto solution set. A case study for a departure of an Airbus A320-211 with population distribution of residential communities around Manchester Airport (ICAO code: EGCC) is carried out with three different optimisers. We demonstrate that this simulation framework is able to solve trajectory optimisation problems with multiple simultaneous environmental objectives.