Impact analysis and classification of aircraft functional failures using improved FHA based on grey evaluation
Authors: Zhang Yuhang , Liu Chang , Xu Tingting , Huang Yan , Tao Liangyan 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThe technical level of aircraft failure analysis plays a special role in ensuring the safety of civil aviation flight. Using appropriate methods for functional failures analysis can provide a reliable reference for aircraft safety. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new and comprehensive measure based on conventional functional hazard analysis (FHA) and grey system theory to analysis and evaluate the class that each failure belongs to.Design/methodology/approachThis paper integrates multiple methods including the FHA, the fixed weight cluster, the Delphi method and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). To begin with, use FHA method to sort out the corresponding failure states of a certain system from the perspective of function and determine the evaluation index. And then using group decision and AHP, determine the expert weight and index weight in the fixed weight cluster. The fixed weight cluster function is used to determine the grey class to which a certain functional failure belongs in the complex system.FindingsIn the past, the risk assessment of aircraft was mostly dominated by the subjective judgment of the experts, but it was not possible to give an objective observation score for each failure state. This paper addresses the problem efficiently as well as the feature of “little data, poor information.” The risk degree of each failure state can ultimately be replaced by a quantitative value.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses the idea of clustering in grey system theory to evaluate the risk of landing gear system. In the expert evaluation stage, different experts evaluated the impact degree of the aircraft's failure caused by its functions, so the final risk classification is subjective to some extent.Practical implicationsThis study analyzed the different conditions of the landing gear, including the front wheel steering, front wheel damping, front wheel steering system, brake system fault information and so on. It can effectively divide the different failure states and their effects, which is helpful to improve the safety of aircraft landing gear system and provide some useful methods and ideas for studying the safety of aircraft systems.Social implicationsBased on the FHA analysis process and the grey system theory, this paper determines various potential risks and their consequences of various functions according to the hierarchy, so as to carry out further detailed analysis on the risks that may occur under various functional conditions and take certain measures to prevent them. It is helpful to improve the risk management and control ability of aircraft in the actual flight process and to guarantee the safety of people's lives and property.Originality/valueThis paper is a pioneer in integrating the FHA method and the grey system theory, which exactly can be used to address the problem with the character of “little data, poor information.” The model established in this paper for the defects of FHA can effectively improve the accuracy of FHA, which is of great significance for the study of safety. In this paper, a case about landing gear system is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the model.