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Airport Geometric Standard

Topics to be covered
 Runway length
 Runway width
 Sight distance
 Grades and change of grades
 Taxiways
 Aprons
 Orientation of runway
 Wind Rose diagram.
Aircraft characteristics
1. Type of propulsion: the size of aircraft, its
circling radius, speed, weight carrying
capacity, noise and heat nuisance etc.
depends on type of propulsion.
 Piston engine.
 Jet engine.
2. Size of aircraft :

 Wing span

 Fuselage length

 Height (empennage height)

 Distance between main gear

 Wheel base and

 Tail width.
3. Minimum turning radius : is very essential in order
to decide the radius of taxiway, position of
aircrafts in landing aprons and hangers and to
establish the path of the movement of the aircraft.
4. Circling radius : depends on type of aircraft, air
traffic volume and weather condition.
 Micro-lites aircraft – 1.6km
 Jet engine – 80km
5. Speed of aircraft :
 Cruising speed/ground speed – aircraft
speed w.r.t ground when aircraft is flying
in air @ maximum speed.
 Air speed – speed of aircraft relative to
wind.
6. Aircraft capacity : capacity of runway
system and passenger terminal.
7. Weight of aircraft and wheel configuration
: structural design of runway, taxiway,
apron and hangers.
8. Jet blast : causes inconvenience to the
passenger travelling in aircraft. Bituminous
flexible pavements are affected by the jet blast,
CC pavements @ touch down portion. For
location, position and size of gates.
9. Fuel spillage : bituminous flexible pavements
are seriously effected by the fuel spillage.
10. Noise.
Runway orientation
• Runway is always oriented in the
direction of prevailing winds.
• The direction of wind opp. to the
direction of landing and take-off (head
wind) provide greater lift on the wings
of aircraft when it is taking-off and
during landing head wind provides a
breaking effect and the aircraft comes
to stop in a shorter length of a runway.
• Landing and taking-off along wind
direction require longer runway.
Cross wind :
 If a wind blow making certain angle with a center
line of runway then it has two components, one
along the direction of runway center line VcosƟ
and normal to the direction of runway center line
VsinƟ. Where V is the velocity of wind.
 The normal component of the wind is called the
cross wind component and may interrupt the
safe landing and take-off of the aircraft.
 Depends on size & wing configuration. Small
aircraft <15kmph & mixed traffic
<25kmph(FAA), big aircrafts <35kmph(ICAO)
Wind coverage :
 The percentage of time in a year during which
the cross wind component remains within the
limits (as per FAA & ICAO specification) is called
wind coverage.
 A/C to FAA, the runway handling mixed traffic
should be so planned that 95% of time in a year,
the permissible cross wind component does not
exceed 25kmph.
 For busy airport, the wind coverage may be
increased to as much as 98% to 100%.
Wind Rose
• The graphical representation of direction, duration
and intensity of wind obtained from wind data is
called wind rose.
• Wind data – at least 5yrs, preferably 10yrs.
• Wind rose diagram helps in analyzing the wind
data and obtaining the most suitable direction of
the runway.
• The percentage of time during which the intensity
of wind is < 6.4(6)kmph is called calm period.
• Wind rose diagram is plotted in two types
• Type I: showing direction and duration of wind
• Type II: showing direction, duration and intensity
of wind
Wind rose diagram - Type I
• The radial line indicate the wind direction and
each circle represents the duration of wind.
• The values of percentage of time in a year
during which wind blows from different
direction are plotted along the corresponding
directions. All plotted points are then joined
by straight line.
• The best direction of runway is usually along
the direction of longest line on wind rose
diagram.
• Does not account the effect of cross wind
component.
Wind rose diagram – Type II
• Circle represents the wind intensity to some scale. The values in each segments
represents the percentage of time in a year during the wind blows with particular
intensity form the respective direction.
• The procedure for determining the orientation of runway is as follows:
• Step1 : draw three equally spaced parallel lines on a transparent paper strip in such a
way that the distance between the two near by parallel lines is equal to the
permissible cross wind component. This distance is measured with same scale with
which wind rose diagram is drawn.
• Step2 : place the transparent paper strip over the wind rose diagram in such a way
that the central line passes through the centre of the diagram.
• Step3 : with the centre of the wind rose, rotate the tracing paper and place it in such
a position that the sum of all values indicating the duration of wind, with in two outer
parallel lines, is the maximum. The runway should thus oriented along the direction
indicated by central line. The wind coverage can be calculated by summing up all the
percentages shown in segment. The percentage value is assumed to be equally
distributed over the entire area of the segment.
Change in direction of
runway
• Obstructions

• Excessive grading

• Noise nuisance
Length of runway
• Selecting the length of a runway is per
haps the important decision which
must be made in the planning of
landing area.

• Length of runway depends on

1.The type of aircraft

2.Its payload
Basic runway length
 It is the length of runway under the following
assumed condition at the airport:
1.Airport altitude at sea level
2.Temperature at airport is standard (150 c)
3.Runway is leveled in the longitudinal direction
4.No wind is blowing on runway
5.Aircraft is loaded at its full loading capacity
6.There is no wind blowing en route to the
destination
7.En route temperature is standard
• The following case are considered for
determining the basic runway length

1.Normal landing case

2.Normal take-off case Jet engine

3.Engine failure case Piston


The cases which works engine
out the longest
runway length is finally adopted
1. Normal landing case
• The normal landing case requires
that an air craft should come to a
stop within 60% of the landing
distance. The runway of full strength
pavement is provided for the entire
landing distance. stop
15 m

Runway

60% of landing distance

landing distance
2. Normal take-off case
• The normal take-off case requires a clearway
which is an area beyond the runway and is in
alignment with the centre line of runway. The
width of clearway is not <150m and is kept free
from obstruction. The clearway ground area or
any object on it should not protrude a plane
inclined upward at a slope of 1.25% from the
runway.
Clearway ≤ ½ of this distance
10.5m height

Lift-off distance
115% of Lift-off distance

Distance to 10.5m height


115% of distance to 10.5m height ( take-off distance)
Longitudinal section

Min 150m
Runway Clearway

Plan
Normal Take-off Case
3.Engine Failure Case
• The engine failure case may require either a clearway,
or a stop way, or both.
• Stop way is an area beyond the runway and centrally
located in alignment with the centre line of runway.
• Stop way is used for decelerating the aircraft and
bringing it to stop during aborted take-off.
• If the engine has failed at a speed, less than the
designated engine failure speed, the pilot decelerate
the aircraft and make use of stop way.
• If however, the engine fails at a speed higher than the
designated speed, there is no other option to the pilot
except to continue take-off. The pilot may later take a
turn in the turning zone and land again for a normal
take-off.
Clearway ≤ ½ of this distance
Engine
Decelerated – stop distance 10.5m
Failure
height

Stop way
Lift-off distance Clear way
Accelerated stop distance
Distance to 10.5m height ( take-of distance )

Longitudinal section

Clearway

Min 150m
Runway Stop
way

Plan
Engine Failure Case
Correction for Elevation,
Temperature and Gradient
• The basic runway length is for mean sea
level elevation having standard
atmospheric conditions.

• For any change in elevation, temperature


and gradient for actual site of construction,
necessary corrections are to be applied to
obtain the length of runway.
Correction for Elevation
• The air density reduces as the elevation
increases, this in turn reduces the lift on the
wings of the aircraft and the aircraft requires
greater ground speed before aircraft becomes
airborne. To achieve greater speed, longer length
of runway is required.

• ICAO recommends that basic runway length


should be increased at the rate of 7% per 300m
rise in elevation above MSL.
Correction for Temperature
• The rise in airport reference temperature has the
same effect as that of the increase in elevation.
• Airport reference temperature

 Ta = monthly mean= ofTaavg.


+ (T m –temp.
daily Ta )/3
for the hottest
month of the year.
 Tm = monthly mean of the maximum daily temp.
 ICAO – 1% for every 10c rise in airport reference temp.
 Further the temp. gradient of the standard
atmosphere from the mean sea level to the altitude at
which the temp becomes 15.60 c is 0.00650 c per
meter.
Check for total correction
for elevation plus
temperature
• ICAO further recommends if the total
correction for elevation plus temp.
exceeds 35% of the basic length,
these correction should be further
checked up by conducting specific
studies at the site by model test.
Correction for gradient
• Steeper gradient results in greater
consumption of energy.
• ICAO does not recommends any specific
correction for the gradient.
• FAA – Runway length after being
corrected for elevation and temp. should
be further increased at the rate of 20%
for every 1% of specific gradient.
• Specific gradient – is the max. difference
in elevation between the highest and
lowest point of runway divided by the
total length of runway.

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