Citation

Zhang R, Geng L, Liu W. Aircr. Eng. Aerosp. Tech. 2023; 95(4): 649-657.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Emerald Group Publishing)

DOI

10.1108/AEAT-02-2022-0057

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

PURPOSE To reduce the flammability exposure assessment time and meet the requirements of airworthiness regulations of transport aircraft, inerting system has become the standard configuration of modern civil aircraft. Therefore, airworthiness regulations put forward definite quantitative index requirements for the safety of inerting system, and to obtain the quantitative data of the safety of inerting system, it is necessary to solve the calculation method. As one of the quantitative/qualitative evaluation techniques for system safety, fault tree analysis is recognized by international airworthiness organizations and national airworthiness certification agencies. When fault tree analysis technology is applied to quantitative analysis of the safety of inerted system, there are still some problems, such as heavy margin of constructing fault tree, great difficulty, high requirement for analysts and poor accuracy of solving when there are too many minimum cut sets. However, based on tens of thousands of flight simulation tests, Monte Carlo random number generation method can solve this problem.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH In this paper, the fault tree of airborne inerting system is established, and the top event is airborne inerting system losing air separation function. Monte Carlo method based on random number generation is used to carry out system security analysis. The reliability of this method is verified.

FINDINGS The static fault tree analysis method based on Monte Carlo random number generation can not only solve the problem of quantitative analysis of inerting system, but can also avoid the defects of complicated solution and inaccurate solution caused by the large number of minimum cut sets, and its calculation results have good reliability. Practical implications The research results of this paper can be used as supporting evidence for airworthiness compliance of airborne inerting system.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE The research results of this paper can provide practical guidance for the current civil airworthiness certification work.

Language: en

Keywords

Airworthiness compliance; Fault tree analysis; Fuel tank flammability; Inerting system; Safety assessment