A simple wake vortex encounter severity metric: rolling moment coefficient due to encounter of an aircraft with a wake vortex

This paper presents a severity metric supporting the characterization of the effect of a wake vortex encounter on a follower aircraft. The proposed metric is the Rolling Moment Coefficient computed using various simplified assumptions that lead to a simple and usable metric. The metric can indeed be computed using available aircraft data. The paper also presents the assessment of the metric based on the results of a wake vortex encounter flight test campaign performed by Airbus. The use of the proposed metric yields good agreement with the experimental data. Because it is simple, yet realistic compared to experimental data, the metric can be used in a relative safety analysis permitting a reduction of the wake turbulence separations compared to today’s ICAO standard, as was done in the framework of the RECAT-EU project.