Urban Air Mobility (UAM) represents a promising solution for future transportation. In this study, we introduce VertiSim, an advanced event-driven simulator developed to evaluate e-VTOL transportation networks. Uniquely, VertiSim simultaneously models passenger, aircraft, and energy flows, reflecting the interrelated complexities of UAM systems. We utilized VertiSim to assess 19 operational scenarios serving a daily demand for 2,834 passengers with varying fleet sizes and vertiport distances. The study aims to support stakeholders in making informed decisions about fleet size, network design, and infrastructure development by understanding tradeoffs in passenger delay time, operational costs, and fleet utilization. Our simulations, guided by a heuristic dispatch and charge policy, indicate that fleet size significantly influences passenger delay and energy consumption within UAM networks. We find that increasing the fleet size can reduce average passenger delays, but this comes at the cost of higher operational expenses due to an increase in the number of repositioning flights. Additionally, our analysis highlights how vertiport distances impact fleet utilization: longer distances result in reduced total idle time and increased cruise and charge times, leading to more efficient fleet utilization but also longer passenger delays. These findings are important for UAM network planning, especially in balancing fleet size with vertiport capacity and operational costs. Simulator demo is available at: https://tinyurl.com/vertisim-vis

翻译：城市空中交通（UAM）是未来交通的一种有前景的解决方案。本研究提出了VertiSim，一种先进的事件驱动模拟器，用于评估e-VTOL运输网络。VertiSim独特地同时模拟乘客、飞行器和能量流，反映了UAM系统相互关联的复杂性。我们利用VertiSim评估了19种运行场景，这些场景服务于日均2834名乘客的需求，并涉及不同的机队规模和垂直起降场距离。本研究旨在帮助利益相关方通过理解乘客延误时间、运营成本和机队利用率之间的权衡，做出关于机队规模、网络设计和基础设施开发的明智决策。在启发式调度与充电策略的指导下，我们的模拟表明，机队规模显著影响UAM网络中的乘客延误和能耗。我们发现，增加机队规模可减少平均乘客延误，但代价是重新定位航班数量增加导致运营费用上升。此外，我们的分析突出了垂直起降场距离对机队利用率的影响：更长的距离会减少总空闲时间，同时增加巡航和充电时间，从而提高机队利用效率，但也导致更长的乘客延误。这些发现对UAM网络规划至关重要，尤其是在平衡机队规模与垂直起降场容量及运营成本方面。模拟演示可访问：https://tinyurl.com/vertisim-vis