AER 715 Avionics and Systems Exercise Problems

1 -1

Chapter 4 Avionics System Design

1.

Discuss the difference in defining the top-level requirements for civil aircraft and military aircraft.

2.

What is design requirement traceability?

3.

What do PDR and CDR represent? Point out the main differences between these two major design reviews.

4.

What is avionics system architecture? List six major aspects of avionics architecture.

5.

Describe the three types of avionics system architecture and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

6.

Explain partitioning in avionics system design.

7.

What is fault tolerance of an avionics system?

8.

What is the most commonly used technique to achieve fault tolerance of a system?

9.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of similar redundancy compared with dissimilar redundancy.

10. What is system reconfiguration?

11. State and discuss three commonly used hardware fault detection approaches.
12. What is reliability?
13. State and discuss three fault-tolerant software techniques.
14. Can a software specification error normally be detected by exhaustive testing?
15. Compare N-version and recovery blocks approaches.
16. What is fault detection?
17. What is analytical redundancy?
18. Should maintenance issues be left to deal with after the avionics equipment is designed? If not, what
maintenance factors should be considered while the equipment is being designed?
19. What should be considered in order to design avionics equipment for easy maintenance?
20. Whats the best known reliability handbook? What can you expect to find from this handbook?
21. What is derating as a common design practice?
22. What is MTBF of an avionics unit? Given the MTBF of an avionics system unit, how do you calculate the
corresponding probability of failure?
23. What functions fault tree analysis can serve when applied to avionics system design?
24. What is a minimum cut set?
25. What is a single point failure?
26. What are the basic steps in a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)?
27. Should FMEA be started after the equipment is designed? Or it should be used as a design tool employed
during the various stages of a design process?
28. List and briefly explain the major items in an FMEA worksheet.
29. Briefly explain the four criticality classification levels normally used in FMEA.
30. For the simplified DC system with two paralleled DC generators as shown in Fig. 1, the MTBF of each
generator is 5,000 hours, and the MTBF of each GCU is 10,000 hours. The reliability data of the other relevant
components is provided the table. Using the fault analysis technique, estimate the probabilities of power loss 1)
on the center busbar and 2) on the AC essential bus.

AER 715 Exercise Problems

AER 715 Avionics and Systems Exercise Problems

Component
GLC
Circuit breaker
Inverter

1 -2
Failure Rate
0.5 x 10-6
1.5 x 10-6
1.0 x 10-5

Generator
#1

Generator
#2

Generator
Control
Unit
GCU #2

Generator
Control
Unit
GCU #1
Generator
Line
Contactor
GLC1

Generator
Line
Contactor
GLC2

LEFT MAIN POWER BUS

RIGHT MAIN POWER BUS

Circuit
Breaker
CB1

Circuit
Breaker
CB2

CENTER BUS
Circuit
Breaker
CB3

Essential
Consumers

INVERTER

AC ESSENTIAL BUS

Fig. 1

AER 715 Exercise Problems