A Modular Framework for the Life Cycle Based Evaluation of Aircraft Technologies, Maintenance Strategies, and Operational Decision Making Using Discrete Event Simulation

Pohya, Ahmad Ali; Wehrspohn, Jennifer; Meissner, Robert; Wicke, Kai

doi:10.3390/aerospace8070187

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…For further information on the former, consider (Curran, Raghunathan, & Price, 2004;Niazi, Dai, Balabani, & Seneviratne, 2005;Altavilla, Montagna, & Cantamessa, 2017). For the latter, a detailed publication is in progress (Pohya, Wehrspohn, Meissner, & Wicke, 2021).…”

Section: Economic Evaluation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of the Economic Viability of Engine Wash Procedures on the Lifecycle Costs of an Aircraft Fleet.

Wehrspohn¹,

Pohya

Wicke³

2021

PHME_CONF

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Aircraft operators find themselves in a highly complex and competitive environment in which the economic pressure on companies is constantly increasing. In addition, annual air traffic is expected to increase by 4-5% (despite the Covid-19 pandemic), which requires significant improvements of aircraft efficiency. To address this on European and global scale, long-term economic and ecologic goals have been defined in the "Flightpath 2050" by the European Commission. One way to reduce both operating costs and environmental impact is to reduce aircraft fuel consumption. Regularly performed engine washes can reduce the accumulation of dirt and debris in the engine and partially restore the performance degradation as well as lower the wear and tear of the engine. This results in lower exhaust gas temperature and a slower aging engine with longer intervals between required maintenance events. Most engine wash studies have drawn their system boundary around the engine and consider only the one-time improvements that result from a wash. Long term effects that build on these improvements, such as changes in maintenance and replacement cycles, are usually not considered. Few studies are available that extend their system boundary and consider changes in maintenance costs. Yet the value of engine wash processes is often quantified on an insufficient setting, especially when environmental conditions and fleet effects are neglected. To estimate the overall benefit and assess the impact on lifecycle costs, a full evaluation of engine wash within an entire fleet is required and fleet effects such as the possibility of downrating the engine for a smaller aircraft should be considered. The aim of this work is to quantify the true value of engine wash procedures considering both physical constraints as well as operational fleet wide considerations. Using discrete event simulations at fleet level, a detailed investigation of the primary and secondary effects and a quantification of lifecycle costs will be performed. Particular attention will be paid to the influence on maintenance costs as well as the economic effect of increased time on wing. With the help of an improved environmental modeling and with the consideration of fleet effects, a holistic statement is possible. To investigate this problem, a lifecycle costing method, named LYFE, developed by DLR will be used. LYFE uses discrete event simulation to model the product lifecycle from order to operation until disposal of an aircraft fleet. For this analysis the tool will be extended to separate the lifecycles of the engines and those of the aircraft, so the engines can change the aircraft and the downrating of the engine for a smaller aircraft can be modeled. In order to represent the contamination and the performance degradation of the engines as realistically as possible, data on the outside air temperature, dust, pollution and other particles in certain regions at the various airports are also included in the tool. Furthermore, the option of derating the engine’s thrust is considered. The lifecycle of two different fleets will be simulated and studied. The difference between the two fleets is that the baseline fleet does not perform any engine washes, while the study fleet performs engine washes. Both fleets consist of different types of aircraft, so that downrating of the engines is possible and the entire lifecycles of the aircraft can be mapped. The evaluation follows two approaches: firstly, the engine wash is carried out and examined regularly; secondly, the intervals at which the engine wash is carried out are optimized in such a way that the lifecycle costs of the fleet are as low as possible. In both cases the number of engines necessary to operate the fleet will be the basis for an overall statement. With this holistic view of how engine washes within a fleet affect its lifecycle costs, a much more realistic statement about this on-wing maintenance action is possible.

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Section: Economic Evaluation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of the Economic Viability of Engine Wash Procedures on the Lifecycle Costs of an Aircraft Fleet.

Wehrspohn¹,

Pohya

Wicke³

2021

PHME_CONF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The combination of LCA and discrete-event simulation described in this paper is based on an existing and generic Life Cycle Cash Flow Environment (LYFE) [58]. This modular framework was developed by the DLR Institute of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul and provides a detailed simulation of the aircraft economic life cycle and the assessment and analysis of changes throughout the aircraft's operation.…”

Section: Description Of Discrete-event Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boundary conditions such as turnaround times or curfew hours at certain airports are also taken into account. Operating schedule for two days including flight and maintenance events (based on [58]).…”

Section: Introduction To Lyfementioning

confidence: 99%

Using Discrete-Event Simulation for a Holistic Aircraft Life Cycle Assessment

2022

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With growing environmental awareness and the resulting pressure on aviation, ecological impact assessments are becoming increasingly important. Life cycle assessment has been widely used in the literature as a tool to assess the environmental impact of aircraft. However, due to the complexity of the method itself and the long lifespans of aircraft, most studies so far have made strong simplifications, especially concerning the operational phase. Using a combined discrete-event simulation framework, this paper aims to ecologically assess the individual life cycle phases of an aircraft. The method will be demonstrated in a case study of an A320 and subsequently compared with findings from the literature. Despite the significant environmental impact of flight operations, which covers almost 99.8% of the entire life cycle of the aircraft, a detailed consideration of all life cycle phases is essential to serve as a reference for the ecological assessment of novel aircraft concepts. The presented assessment method thus enables a holistic analysis at an early stage of the design process and supports the decision-making for new technologies and operational changes.

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“…Many Health Management approaches need the development of the health status development according to individual mission profiles of the asset as input for their simulation. Examples are the estimation of operating costs as in (Pohya, Wehrspohn, Meissner, & Wicke, 2021) or deriving prescriptive maintenance strategies as in (Meissner, Rahn, & Wicke, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Index Framework for Condition Monitoring and Health Prediction

2022

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In the field of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), stakeholders such as operators or service providers have to keep track of the health status of fleets of complex systems. The ability to estimate the future health status of these systems and their components becomes more pivotal when seeking to efficiently operate and maintain these systems. Today, these stakeholders have access to a lot of different data sources regarding fleet, operation schedule, ambient condition, system and component information. Many different prognostic methods from different disciplines are available and will further improve henceforward. In many cases these data sources and methods function as isolated methods in their own field. This fragmentation makes a holistic prognosis very challenging in many cases. Therefore, stakeholders need information integrating methods and tools to gain an exhaustive insight into the health status development of the complex assets they are operating or maintaining, in order to make well-founded decisions regarding operation or maintenance planning. In this paper, a Python-based health index framework is presented. It enables users to integrate operation schedules of different detail levels with enriching data sources such as ambient condition data. Furthermore, it provides methods to design complex asset systems which are linked via their construction, function or degradation mechanisms/ health indices via transfer relations. It allows to monitor the asset’s condition based on operation data and to simulate different operation scenarios regarding the health index development.

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A Modular Framework for the Life Cycle Based Evaluation of Aircraft Technologies, Maintenance Strategies, and Operational Decision Making Using Discrete Event Simulation

Cited by 16 publications

References 37 publications

An Assessment of the Economic Viability of Engine Wash Procedures on the Lifecycle Costs of an Aircraft Fleet.

An Assessment of the Economic Viability of Engine Wash Procedures on the Lifecycle Costs of an Aircraft Fleet.

Using Discrete-Event Simulation for a Holistic Aircraft Life Cycle Assessment

Health Index Framework for Condition Monitoring and Health Prediction

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