Proposed Fault Management Prioritisation Framework for Cascading Electrical Faults in Future Aircraft

Power electronics are an enabling technology for the electrification of aircraft power and propulsion systems. The higher integration of power electronics will lead to new fault modes, including cascading faults. To facilitate the design of resilient electrified systems with appropriate electrical fault management and limit future aircraft accidents, identification of the probability and severity of cascading faults linked to the implementation of necessary and effective fault management methods is required. This paper proposes a framework for the prioritisation of fault management methods to address cascading faults in state-of-the-art and future aircraft. Air accident investigation reports provide the datasets for the framework. The key elements and considerations of the framework are outlined, including terminology, dataset information, dataset format, probability and severity of cascading fault modes, visualisation, and future aircraft assumptions. Within the framework, bowtie diagrams demonstrate the link between fault modes and fault management strategies. The framework is applied to a case study of the electrical wiring and interconnection system.