Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Applied to Fault Detection Analysis of Vehicle Subsystems

As the field of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) continues to advance in the aerospace industry and far beyond, company executives in all aspects of the program lifecycle now have the opportunity to investigate and begin implementing meaningful applications of the digital thread to ideally realize time and cost savings for both current and future company efforts. One such portion of the product lifecycle often overlooked when allocating resources for digital thread implementation is the logistics and sustainment phase, which in many cases can account for the majority of the total program cost over the lifespan of the product. This paper in particular examines, as a case study, an opportunity for program sustainment to benefit directly from the digital thread by focusing on modeling subsystem block diagrams in SysML, and using those models to assess, verify, and ultimately generate deliverables assessing the Built-In-Test (BIT) capability of a given system. This information in the form of system models or paper deliverables can greatly expedite routine maintenance procedures for example by allowing technicians to quickly locate faulty cable harnesses in the field, or by enabling reliability engineers to verifiably and instantly ensure that BIT faults have complete coverage over all possible failures, including new ones resulting from costly lessons learned in operational usage. The goal of this effort is to outline a specific concept under which BIT behaviors may be modeled in SysML and how they relate to already established subsystem models, but the broader idea of the paper is to present an argument for the very tangible benefits of investing in and establishing a digital thread not just in the design phase of a program, but also across typical company silos and into the product support and sustainment organizations as well.