Optimized Power System Layout Focusing on UERF on eVTOL Aircraft

The power system is critical for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft not only in providing propulsion but also flight control, especially during the VTOL phase. System safety assessment is necessary for the development of aircraft and its systems to ensure safe operation and compliance with certification. However, existing methods are not sufficient for more sophisticated systems and there is a lack of efficient approach for particular risk analysis (PRA) on eVTOL aircraft. This paper proposes a complete model-based safety assessment (MBSA) method, which can quantitatively evaluate the risk of uncontained engine rotor failure (UERF). The proposed method is established on the logical architecture model of the eVTOL power system, and it provides automatic generation of minimum cut sets (MCSs). Further combining the above results with the UERF model and relative battery management systems (BMSs) layout, the final probability of loss of control caused by UERF is calculated. By comparing the different probabilities of various layouts, the optimized power system layout is found.