The optimal APM route spacing is inversely proportional to the square root of the passenger walking cost. The numbers and lengths of piers in a given ATC are analytically optimized. The proposed optimization models use the total passenger walking distance or total cost as an objective function. The results show that the optimal number of piers increases with the passenger transfer rate, gate size and required number of gates. An optimized ATC without APM tends towards a compact square shape while an optimized ATC with APM tends to be stretched along the APM routes.
Some configurations are too complex to optimize analytically.
A heuristic model has been developed and successfully applied for evaluating such relatively complex configurations. The models and results presented here should be useful in the preliminary design of airport terminals. This study concludes with recommendations for improving the applicability of the proposed models. The only application of prestressing was in the Interstate I-79 bridge in Pennsylvania over the Ohio River back channel between Moon Township and Neville Island. Because of its location jacking the bridge vertically was too expensive, so prestressing was used to bring the two fractured halves of the bottom flange into contact.