Simulation of military airfields

Simulation has become an accepted and powerful tool for analyzing hybrid systems which contain both continuous and discrete dynamics. A detailed simulation has the ability to capture all important aspects of a system but does not provide an easy means for optimizing parameters. Through a decomposition method, subsystems of a hybrid system which are purely continuous or discrete are identified, separated from the remainder of the system, and optimized using classical techniques. Using the decomposition method, certain parameters of the hybrid system can be optimized to improve overall performance. A detailed simulation had been developed for the study of strategic military airfields within the Air Force transportation system. The simulation predicts the health and capability of an airfield in the face of different mixes of aircraft traffic and cargo movement requirements. It also determines the level of airfield resources needed to sustain a planned flow of aircraft through an airfield. The model has supported two major studies and is now being used to analyze the capabilities of all airfields in the Air Mobility Command's global transportation system. The airfield simulation has also become the focus of an attempt to optimize airfield performance using the hybrid system decomposition method.