Air Fleet and Facility Planning via Optimal Control Models

A study is presented which is aimed at developing techniques suitable for effective planning and efficient operation of fleets of aircraft typical of the air force of a developing country. An important aspect of fleet management, the problem of resource allocation for achieving prescribed operational effectiveness of the fleet, is considered. For analysis purposes, it is assumed that the planes operate in a single flying-base repair-depot environment. The perennial problem of resource allocation for fleet and facility buildup that faces planners is modeled and solved as an optimal control problem. These models contain two "policy" variables representing investments in aircraft and repair facilities. The feasibility of decentralized control is explored by assuming the two policy variables are under the control of two independent decisionmakers guided by different and not often well coordinated objectives.

Air-fleet and maintenance facility planning

This paper describes the use of simulation in the planning and operation of a small fleet of aircraft typical of the air force of a developing country. We consider a single flying base, where the opera tionally ready aircraft are stationed, and a repair depot, where the planes are overhauled. The measure of effectiveness used is "system availability, the percentage of airplanes that are usable. The system is modeled in GPSS as a cyclic queue process. The simulation model is used to perform sensitivity analyses and to validate the principal assumptions of the analytical model on which the simulation model is based.

Air Fleet and Facility Planning via Optimal Control Models

A study is presented which is aimed at developing techniques suitable for effective planning and efficient operation of fleets of aircraft typical of the air force of a developing country. An important aspect of fleet management, the problem of resource allocation for achieving prescribed operational effectiveness of the fleet, is considered. For analysis purposes, it is assumed that the planes operate in a single flying-base repair-depot environment. The perennial problem of resource allocation for fleet and facility buildup that faces planners is modeled and solved as an optimal control problem. These models contain two "policy" variables representing investments in aircraft and repair facilities. The feasibility of decentralized control is explored by assuming the two policy variables are under the control of two independent decisionmakers guided by different and not often well coordinated objectives.

Systems analysis for planning of air fleets and maintenance facilities

The high cost and extraordinary demands made on sophisticated air defence systems, pose hard challenges to the managers and engineers who plan the operation and maintenance of such systems. This paper presents a study aimed at developing simulation and systems analysis techniques for the effective planning and efficient operation of small fleets of aircraft, typical of the air force of a developing country. We consider an important aspect of fleet management: the problem of resource allocation for achieving prescribed operational effectiveness of the fleet. At this stage, we consider a single flying-base, where the operationally ready aircraft are stationed, and a repair-depot, where the planes are overhauled. An important measure of operational effectiveness is ‘ availability ’, which may be defined as the expected fraction of the fleet fit for use at a given instant. The tour of aircraft in a flying-base, repair-depot system through a cycle of ‘ operationally ready ’ and ‘ scheduled overhaul ’ phases is represented first by a deterministic flow process and then by a cyclic queuing process. Initially the steady-state availability at the flying-base is computed under the assumptions of Poisson arrivals, exponential service times and an equivalent singleserver repair-depot. This analysis also brings out the effect of fleet size on availability. It defines a ‘ small ’ fleet essentially in terms of the important ‘ traffic ’ parameter of service rate/maximum arrival rate.A simulation model of the system has been developed using GPSS to study sensitivity to distributional assumptions, to validate the principal assumptions of the analytical model such as the single-server assumption and to obtain confidence intervals for the statistical parameters of interest.

Biofuel production and implications for land use, food production and environment in India

There is a large interest in biofuels in India as a substitute to petroleum-based fuels, with a purpose of enhancing energy security and promoting rural development. India has announced an ambitious target of substituting 20% of fossil fuel consumption by biodiesel and bioethanol by 2017. India has announced a national biofuel policy and launched a large program to promote biofuel production, particularly on wastelands: its implications need to be studied intensively considering the fact that India is a large developing country with high population density and large rural population depending upon land for their livelihood. Another factor is that Indian economy is experiencing high growth rate, which may lead to enhanced demand for food, livestock products, timber, paper, etc., with implications for land use. Studies have shown that area under agriculture and forest has nearly stabilized over the past 2-3 decades. This paper presents an assessment of the implications of projected large-scale biofuel production on land available for food production, water, biodiversity, rural development and GHG emissions. The assessment will be largely focused on first generation biofuel crops, since the Indian program is currently dominated by these crops. Technological and policy options required for promoting sustainable biofuel production will be discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.