Abstract
The More Electric Aircraft (MEA) stands for the direction of aviation development in the new era, and the reliability of power systems on the MEA has attracted widespread attention. Based on the characteristics of MEA power systems, an equivalent method of electrical topology structure is presented in this article, and evaluation method is proposed which shows the reliability of the overall system with the reliability of specific nodes. Firstly, electrical topology structure of a MEA power system is converted into a network node diagram according to the proposed equivalent method. Then, the minimal path sets of specific nodes are obtained by the adjacent matrix algorithm, and the low-order minimal cut sets of disjointed are obtained. After that, the actual failure rate of components is converted to node failure rate, and the reliability of the overall system is evaluated by operational reliability indexes of specific nodes. Finally, taking the MEA A380 as an example, this paper compares and analyzes the reliability of AC loads, DC loads, and key loads to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed evaluation method. This evaluation system can predict the weak points existing in the MEA power system, as well as providing theoretical support for maintenance schedule.
Highlights
More Electric Aircraft (MEA) is one kind of aircraft that replaces the original hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical drive systems with power systems as many as possible [1]
Based on theory of graph, this paper presents the equivalent method for characteristics of EMA power system, by which complex electrical topology structures are converted into network node diagrams
For evaluating the reliability of the entire MEA power system, typical nodes of power supplies and key loads are found according to characteristics of MEA power supply
Summary
MEA is one kind of aircraft that replaces the original hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical drive systems with power systems as many as possible [1]. The power system studied in this paper is one of core systems in MEA, which is the general term of power generation, transmission, conversion, and consumption on an aircraft [2]. The MEA has advantages of simple structure, light weight, high efficiency, easy maintenance, low fuel consumption, and strong vitality [3, 4]. The extremely high reliability of aircraft operation has prompted reliability of MEA power system to be a hot research topic in the field of aircraft safety [5]. A MEA power system has the characteristics of complex structure, redundant lines, many power electronic devices, and so on which pose new requirements and challenges for the reliability analysis of the aircraft power system
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