Analyzing commercial aircraft fuel consumption during descent: A case study using an improved K-means clustering algorithm

The analysis of aircraft fuel consumption remains an important topic as fuel consumption constitutes a large portion of airline operational costs, and exhaust emissions generated by aircraft gradually have become an essential aspect of urban air pollution, especially during takeoff and descent. Previous studies have focused mainly on optimizing fuel loss and greenhouse gases emission via three key methods: reducing additional aircraft load, using inventive air transfer control methods, and identifying the best-performing aviation systems for all conditions. However, there are few studies that have considered the relationships among fuel consumption, pilot behavior, and flight factors. This study fills this gap by focusing on the relationships between fuel consumption and three factors during the descent phase: altitude, weight, and speed. Further, we propose an improved K-means clustering algorithm to analyze the flight data, conducting clustering analysis on multi-dimensional data based on real flight records of Boeing 737s operated by China Eastern Airlines. We conclude the highlights of this study into three aspects: (1) the relationship between aircraft descent and fuel consumption is investigated through clustering analysis to find a fuel-efficient aircraft descent. (2) an improved K-means clustering algorithm is proposed to analyze flight data. (3) the better aircraft descent is the suggestion for pilots by analyzing the clustering results, which is a good supplement to the Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM). In the case study, the improved K-means algorithm is used for the cluster analysis of data from the quick access recorders of two aircraft descending into Chengdu Shuangliu Airport (CTU) in China. Compared with the method that does not use the analysis results for the descending, the average fuel consumption per unit of time decreases by 17.5% when we use our proposed method. In the Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG), our proposed method reduces average fuel consumption per unit of time by 19.3%. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.