Graduation Semester and Year

2016

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Stephen P Mattingly

Second Advisor

Siamak A Ardekani

Third Advisor

C. James Williams

Abstract

A “go-around” occurs when an aircraft, which is on final approach, aborts it landing due to unsatisfactory conditions. Go-arounds have a significant impact on the capacity of the airports and pose a serious concern at large airports, especially for airports with diagonal runways. Go-arounds occur due to manual errors, mechanical faults and weather factors. This study focuses on the impact of weather factors on go-around occurrence. The study includes wind gust, storm events (thunderstorm, rain and snow) and visibility as the weather factors under investigation. The author uses a factorial sampling strategy where these factors are segmented into additional categories to create a sampling matrix. After classifying all days into one of the matrix cells, the study randomly selects a single day from each cell for a total of 18 days. The author uses Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) data for this study. After cleaning the raw data and extracting the arrival aircraft data, the researcher identifies the total number of go-arounds using mapping software. The study compares the categories for each factor of interest to determine if their go-around rates appear significantly different from each other using the two proportion Z test. The statistical analysis indicates that wind gust (>29 mph) and thunderstorm significantly increase the probability of a go-around. However, visibility does not show a significant impact.

Keywords

Aircraft, Go-around, Weather, ASDE-X

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Civil Engineering | Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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