Concurrent aircraft design and trip assignment under uncertainty as a system of systems problem

Muharrem Mane, Purdue University

Abstract

Better techniques for reducing operating costs of on-demand air service providers are continuously investigated in the field of operations research. Problem formulations and algorithms that reduce computational time are considered to solve the resource allocation, trip assignment, crew assignment, or maintenance scheduling problems. Efficient tools to solve these problems are especially critical for on-demand air service providers, who operate in an uncertain environment with demand changing daily and who need to generate high quality, feasible solutions to these allocation problems. Similarly, designing better and more efficient aircraft – better fuel consumption, lower emissions, etc. – is the goal of aircraft manufacturers. This can take the shape of better computational tools to reduce designing and testing costs or better technologies to increase aircraft performance and efficiency. This study investigates the issues that arise from combining these fields and the interactions of discipline specific variables and their effects on the operations of on-demand air transportation. Operations are a collection of independently-operating entities (aircraft, airports, maintenance facilities, etc, if appropriate) that provide a capability (on-demand air transportation). Because this is a collection of independently-operating entities, the problem has features of a system of systems. The work presented here considers a series of problems that capture the basic characteristics of aircraft design and resource allocation and presents an approach for the formulation and solution to this multidisciplinary design problem as a single problem. Because uncertainty is an important aspect of on-demand service, it is included in the problem formulation of this research. This is a departure from past representations that consider the solution to allocation problems and the solution to aircraft design problems separately.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Crossley, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Aerospace engineering|Industrial engineering

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