Airport engineering

Analysis of wind

Dr. Lina Shbeeb

Analysis of wind
As a general principle, the principle traffic runway at an airport should be oriented as closely as practicable in the direction of the prevailing winds. Landing and taking-off aircraft are able to maneuver on the runway as long as the wind component at right angles to the direction of travel (cross wind) is not excessive. The maximum allowable cross wind depends on
Size of aircraft Condition of the pavement surface

Transport category aircraft can maneuver in crosswinds as high as 30kn (35 mi/h), but it is quite difficult to do so, lower values are used for airport planning. FAA recommends that the runways be oriented so that aircraft may be landed at least 95% of the time with allowable crosswind component not exceeding specified limits based upon the airport reference code.
Dr. Lina Shbeeb 2

airport reference code.

Airport reference code Wind cross Wind cross (Kn) (mi/h) A-I and B-I 10.5 12 A-II and B-II A-III, B-III,C-I,C-II, CIII and C-IV A-IV through D-VI 13 16 20 15 18.5 23

In some cases, two runways are required to achieve the 95% wind coverage criterion
Dr. Lina Shbeeb 3

FAA Airport reference code

Aircraft approach category Aircraft Airplane design approach speed group (kn) Aircraft wingspan (ft)

A B C

<91 91-<121 121-<141

I II III

<49 49-<79 79-<118

D
E

141-<166
166

IV
V

118-<171
171-<214

VI
Dr. Lina Shbeeb

214-<262
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ICAO Aerodrome Reference Codes

Aerodrome code number Reference field length (m) Aerodrome code letter Wingspan, (m) Outer main gearwheel span (m)a

1 2
3 4

<800 800-<1200
1200-<1800 1800

A B
C D E

<15 15-<24
24-<36 36-<52 52-<65

<4.5 4.5-<6
6-<9 9-<14 9-<14

a: Distance between outside edges of tires on the main wheel gears

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/ Cross wind criteria

International Civil Runway Aeronautics Organization length (ICAO) specifies that the runway should be 1500 oriented so that aircraft may be landed at least 95% of the time with 1200crosswind component as <1500 follows: <1200

Wind cross (Kn)

Wind cross (mi/h)

20 13 10

23 15 11.5
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Dr. Lina Shbeeb

Desirable direction of runway

After selecting the maximum permissible crosswind components, the direction of runway for wind coverage can be determined by examining the wind characteristics for the following conditions:
The entire wind coverage regardless of visibility or cloud ceilingAll-weather condition ( represent the entire range of visibility, from excellent to very poor) . Wind conditions when the ceiling is at least 1000 ft and the visibility is at least 3 mi Visual meteorological condition (Represent good-visibility conditions and there is no need for instrument for landing). Wind conditions when the ceiling is between 200 and 1000 ft and the visibility is between and 3 mi - Instrument meteorological condition (Represent poor-visibility conditions and there is a need for instrument for landing).

The 95% criterion suggested by FAA and ICAO is applicable to all conditions of weather.
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Wind data collection

In USA weather data are collected from weather stations on cloud ceiling, visibility, wind speed and direction, storms, barometric pressure, temperature, and relative humidity, etc. In the past wind velocities were divided into velocity ranges in 22.5 increments (16 points on the compass), but now these data are obtainable in 10 increments (10 points on the compass) The weather records contain percentage of time that certain combination of ceiling and visibility occur (e.g., ceiling 500 to 900 ft; visibility, 3 to 6 mi) and the percentage of time that winds of specified ranges come from different directions (e.g., from NNE 4 to 7 mi/h), the directions are referenced to true north
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The wind rose

The direction of the runway or runway at an airport can be determined through graphical vector analysis on a wind rose. A standard wind rose consists of a series of concentric circles cut by radial lines on polar-coordinate graph paper.
The radial lines are drawn to the scale of the wind magnitude such that the area between each pair of successive lines is centered on the wind direction. A template representing the cross wind component limit is also drawn to the same radial scale (e.g. 15mi/h) with three parallel lines, the middle line represents the runway centerline and the distance between the middle line and each outside line is, to scale, the allowable cross wind (15mi/h). The template is placed over the wind rose so that the centerline on the template passes through the center of the wind rose. By overlaying the template on the wind rose and rotating the centerline of the template through the origin of the wind rose, one may determined the percentage of time that a runway in the direction of the centerline of the template can be used such that the cross wind component does not exceed 15mi/h
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/ The wind rose

Optimum runway directions can be determined from this wind rose by the use of template, typically made on a transparent strip of material. With the center of the wind rose as a pivot point, the template is rotated until the sum of the percentage included between the outer line is maximum.

Dr. Lina Shbeeb

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