Aircraft Emissions Monitoring Through Flight-Phase Fuel Accounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
The aviation industry faces increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions due to environmental concerns and potential regulatory fines, necessitating effective systems and methods for monitoring and managing aircraft emissions.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for determining carbon emissions by receiving engine operation data, identifying flight phases, calculating fuel consumption and emissions based on flight phase durations and fuel flow rates, and integrating this data into a comprehensive emissions monitoring system for individual aircraft and fleets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If comprehensive engine operation data is collected and processed to determine carbon emissions, then emission monitoring accuracy is improved, but system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the flight operation into distinct phases (taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, approach, landing) and calculates emissions for each phase separately using phase-specific fuel flow rates and time durations. This segmentation allows for more accurate emissions monitoring by accounting for varying engine conditions in different flight phases, while managing system complexity through structured data organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller performs multiple functions using the same engine operation data: it determines flight phases, calculates fuel consumption, computes carbon emissions, and tracks cumulative emissions across multiple flights. This multi-functionality improves measurement precision without proportionally increasing system complexity, as a single data processing system handles various emission monitoring tasks.
2Measurement precision
If detailed flight phase analysis is performed to calculate emissions, then emission tracking precision is improved, but data processing time and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-establishes the seven flight phases and their corresponding fuel flow rate relationships before actual emission calculations. By having the phase structure and calculation methodology prepared in advance, the system can quickly process engine operation data during flights without requiring complex real-time computations, thus improving precision while minimizing processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses different fuel flow rate parameters for different flight phases to accurately reflect varying engine efficiency and emissions characteristics. By changing the computational parameters (fuel flow rates specific to each phase) rather than using a single average rate, the system achieves higher emission tracking precision with efficient calculations suited to each operational condition.
3Measurement precision
If cumulative fuel consumption is calculated across multiple flights, then total emission accounting is improved, but data storage and management requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges flight phase data and fuel consumption calculations across multiple flights into a cumulative emission total. By combining individual flight emissions into an aggregate measure, the system achieves precise total emission accounting while reducing data management complexity through consolidated reporting, rather than maintaining separate detailed records for every flight phase of every flight.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods are provided for determining carbon emissions for an aircraft. The systems may include a communication system configured to receive engine operation data from the aircraft indicating operating conditions of an engine of the aircraft during operation thereof, and a controller operably coupled to the communication system and configured to, with one or more processors: receive the engine operation data via the communication system, determine amounts of time that the engine was in each of two or more flight phases based on the engine operation data, determine a cumulative fuel consumption of the engine for more than one flight of the aircraft based on the engine operation data, the amounts of time that the engine was in each of the two or more flight phases, and fuel flow rates of the engine, and determine engine carbon emissions based on the cumulative fuel consumption for the engine.