Date of Award

Summer 7-2018

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Department

Civil Engineering

Committee Chair

Christopher D. Grant

First Committee Member

Hongyun Chen

Second Committee Member

Scott Parr

Abstract

Airport surface detection equipment, such as ASDE-X, is used by thirty-five commercially operated airports throughout the United States. ASDE-X is responsible for the safe monitoring of aircraft movements as well as ground support vehicle operating on the airfield. Like most radar-based technologies, ASDE-X can report the position of any aircraft within a one second time interval. This data not only contains the geographic position, but also reports speed, heading, altitude, and aircraft specific characteristics. Using a quantitative approach, this research will use the data reported by ASDE-X to analyze current runway exit locations and develop an improved method of determining the location of runway exits. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration is using an out-of-date nonstandard categorization based on maximum takeoff weight to determine the location of runway exits. This research uses data from ASDE-X to determine the best categorization using the current Federal Aviation Administration’s airport design reference categorization. This study found the Airplane Design Group, or ADG, to be the best reference to locate runway exit locations. Reformed tables depicting the percent of capture of each ADG based on the location of a runway exit were created based on the quantitative analysis of operational data. These tables included the location of both high-speed runway exits as well as right-angled runway exits. This research recommends future studies at additional airports to determine the effect of airport elevation, geometric layouts, and geometric constraints. It is also recommended to study if a method of analyzing ASDE-X data can assist in determine runway length requirements.

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