Reliability Engineeringand System Safety 56 (1997) 143-150

© 1997 Elsevier Science Limited

All rights reserved. Printed in Northern Ireland
ELSEVIER PII: S0951-8320(97)00004-S 0951-8320/97/$17.00

A reliability study of Fokker F-27 airplane

brakes
Ahmed Z. AI-Garni, Ahmet Z. Sahin & Abdulghani A. AI-Farayedhi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

(Received 19 May 1996; accepted 2 January 1997)

The wear/failure data of brake assemblies of a commercial type airplane

(Fokker F-27) is statistically analyzed, and interpreted in a reliability frame-
work. A three parameter Weibull model is used for reliability characterization
of the brake assemblies. A spreadsheet format of analysis is proposed to
analyze the data. This reliability model can be effectively integrated into an
aviation facility computerized material requirement planning system to fore-
cast the number of brake assemblies needed for a given planning horizon.
© 1997 Elsevier Science Limited.

1 INTRODUCTION radiation from 320 (wh/m2/day) to 560 (wh/m2/day).

Airplanes such as the Fokker F-27 are repairable
systems that include several non-repairable parts;
brake assemblies are among the non-repairable parts
that must be replaced upon wear/failure. Fokker F-27
is a Netherlands aircraft (see Ref. 1), with operating
mass ( e m p t y ) = 12,011 kg. maximum payload mass =
5,906 kg, length overall = 23.56 m, height overall (for
standard landing gear) ----8.5 m, wing area = 70 m 2,
wing s p a n = 2 9 m , wing chord (at root) = 3.45 m,
normal cruising speed (at altitude of 6,100m)=
259 knots (480km/h), maximum endurance (at
altitude of 6 , 1 0 0 m ) = 7 h 25 min, range (for 44
passengers)= 1020nm (1,926km), required take-off
field length = 988 m-1210 in, and required landing field
length = 1003 m-1076 m. Fokker-27 uses a brake unit
with 3 rotating disks and 3 stationary disks (see Figs 1
and 2). The location and environment (see Refs 2 and
3) that the aviation fleet operated are mostly in the
Eastern Province of the Arabian Peninsula. The
climate in the province is influenced by the Arabian
Gulf waters. Dhahran is one of its main cities, which
has Dhahran International Airport. The weather
conditions in most main cities are more or less the
same. Dhahran (26.32 N, 50.13 E) can be selected as
representative weather for the Eastern Province,
which is nearly 10 km inland from the Gulf. In the last
ten years the monthly average temperature has varied
from 15°C to 38°C, the monthly average humidity
from 34% to 75%, and the monthly average solar
143
A proper record of wear/failure data is valuable in
interpreting the wear/failure pattern, for comparative
evaluation of the quality of brake assemblies of
various manufacturers, and for prediction of future
needs in a specified planning horizon or for specified
operational hours. This work is an extension to the
work in Refs 4 and 5.
Airplane brakes are subject to a number of wearout
processes, i.e., uniform wear, accelerated wear at
certain spots, microchipping, etc. When the brakes are
applied upon landing, the conditions of wear in
airplanes are far more severe than the corresponding
conditions in automobiles on the highways. In the case
of airplanes, the loads are not so uniform, there is a
variety of shock loads, or a severe load spectrum is
generated which can cause accelerated wear. Brake
life is defined by the wear limits set by the controlling
aviation agencies. When the damage due to these
wearout processes reaches this critical limit, the brake
assembly is considered to be worn out/failed.
Replacement of the brakes is due to wear/failure. The
indicator pin of the brake assembly will indicate its
wear limit depending on factory imposed limits.
However, the brake assembly can be replaced for
other reasons, e.g., overheating of the brake assembly.
The brake assembly absorbs a tremendous amount of
heat energy and whenever it shows signs of
overheating, or if it has been involved in an aborted
takeoff, it must be removed from the aircraft and
given a complete inspection following which it may be
replaced. Chattering or squealing will generate
144 A. Z. AI-Garni, A. Z. Sahin, A. A. AI-Farayedhi

1111
I

!~ ][ TORQUETUBE

CLAMPINGBOLT
/
¢

BRAKERETURN
MECHANISM i STATIONARYDISCS

ROTATINGDISCS
Fig. 1. Fokker F-27 airplane and sketch of the four main landing gears.

vibration, which is harmful to the landing gear and The time taken to reach this critical manifestation
brake structure. Warped or glazed disks will cause of wear/failure can be measured either by associated
chattering as will any unparallel condition of the flight time, or in terms of the n u m b e r of landings. Let
surface of the disk stack. us consider a situation where flight time t ~ t i m e of
 Reliability of airplane brakes 145

i I

4 3 2 1
Fig. 2. Brake and brake assembly of Fokker F-27 airplane.

application of airplane brakes on runway, t ' , ~ wear/failure rate as the operational time (i.e., the
number of landings, N. number of landings) increases. Thus a most suitable
The life of a brake assembly is not a fixed value, but characterization of instantaneous wear/failure rate of
rather a random quantity, t, and is bounded by brake assemblies will be by a power law function of
to < t < oo where to is the minimum expected life. time as given below:
A(t) = 00<--t<--to
/3 [ t - to~t3-' (2)
2 RELIABILITY OF BRAKE ASSEMBLIES IN A(t) 7 / - to\B
----~o/!! t > to
TERMS OF FLIGHT TIME, t
where 7/is a scale parameter, and/3 - 1 is a parameter
The reliability, R(t), of brake assemblies characterizes which determines the severity of the wearout process.
the probability of survival of a brake assembly beyond Using this power law, a wear/failure rate model
time t, i.e., P[T > t] = R(t) and in general terms can (eqn (2)), eqn (1) will represent a well known three
be defined as [6]: parameter Weibull reliability model [6], which is given
as"
R(t) = e x p - A(~)dr (1) R(t)=exp[-(t-t°] 0-1] t>to (3)
L \tl - to/ J
where A(t)= instantaneous wear/failure rate of the where:
brake assemblies, and t =flight (operational) time,
which is proportional to the cumulative contact time R(t) = PIT>t], T is the random variable charac-
on runway (t r) which in turn is proportional to the terizing the life of a product and t is the specific
number of landings, N. value of T; to < t <
Brake assemblies arc subjected to increasing to = minimum expected life
146 A. Z. AI-Garni, A. Z. Sahin, A. A. Al-Farayedhi
1.0
I F and
0.9
0.8
0.7
I rI z zy {[1]} = ~3In(t- to) -/31n(r/-
0.6 In In 1 - F(t) t,,). (5)
> 0.5 f i
0
0 0.4
Equation (5) is in the form of Y = m X + C,
0.3 I
0.2
O.1
I
I I
[ where Y = In{In(i//1 - F(t)])}, X = l n ( t - to),
m =/3 and C = - / 3 1 n ( r / - to).
0.0 I
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Thus, for a given time to wear/failure data
1/B
organized in an ordered fashion (i.e., t~ < t2... < ti... <
Fig. 3. Coefficient of variation K vs 1/[3 ([3 is the shape tN), the probability distribution function F(t) can be
parameter). substituted by its estimate P(ti) using the median rank
formula [6].

77 = scale parameter which expresses the charac-
teristic life, such that at ( t - t 0 ) = ( 7 - t 0 ) , the
probability of failure is 36.78%
/3 = shape parameter of the model and is linked to
the coefficient of variation K ( = standard deviation
of life/mean or average value of life) as illustrated
in Fig. 3 [7]. Thus /3 is a non-dimensional quantity
and represents scatter in life; the smaller the scatter,
the larger the value of /3 and vice versa. As an
approximation,/3 = 1/k.
3 F r l T I N G T H E W E I B U L L M O D E L TO
WEAR/FAILURE DATA
Using the complementary function (the cumulative dis-
tribution function) F(t)= 1-R(t), we define P[T <t].
Thus
= - -
i
P(ti) n+l 0-<i-<n. (6)
Equation (5) can be fitted to the experimental data
P(ti) VS (t i --tO) for i = 0,1,2 ..... n. By performing the
linear regression analysis using the linearly trans-
formed eqn (5), the parameters /3 and 77 can be
determined. This approach implies that to is known.
The value of to is less than t~ or to=kt~, where
0 . 8 5 < k < 1 [6]. A starting point can be taken as
to = 0.9tl; if the straight line fit is poor then this value
can be adjusted between 0.85t0-0.99to, until a good
fit is obtained. This can easily be accomplished on a
spread sheet format, where this trial and error
procedure is quite convenient as compared to when
the data is manually plotted on a Weibull probability
paper.

[_(t-tol~ 1 4 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF BRAKE

F(t)=l-exp \r/-to; J t>t0.
Various approaches commonly used in fitting the
Weibull model to the wear/failure data are as follows:
1. We use the Weibull probability paper to plot
the estimated values of F(t)= F(t,)=i/(n + 1)
against ti and determine /3 and ~7 from these
plots. It is assumed that t, values are specified [6].
2. We use the maximum likelihood estimates of the
parameters and utilize the Kolomogrov-Smirnov
test to check the validity of the Weibull model
[6, 8].
3. We show, in the present paper, that a
spreadsheet based analysis is so straightforward
and clear that there is no need to plot on
probability paper. The method of fitting the data
on a Weibull plot is explained below. From eqn
(4), we can write
_( t - t o l ~
In/1 - F(t)](t) = \ 7 1 - to~
(4)
A S S E M B L Y W E A R / F A I L U R E D A T A IN
T E R M S O F F L I G H T TIME, t
In this section we will analyze data obtained from a
local aviation facility in Saudi Arabia. The data
represents the time to wear/failure of brake
assemblies for an aircraft, a Fokker F-27, over a
period of six years. Wear/failure is defined whenever,
at the inspection time, it is observed that the brake
assembly needs to be replaced according to the
aviation standards being followed. This means that
whenever the manifestation of a critical form of
damage of one of the brakes in a brake assembly
reaches the specified limit of the standards on
maintenance, the brake assembly is considered to be
worn out/failed. The data is obtained from the log
book of the plane. It is recorded in two forms, i.e., as
the number of flying hours between replacements and
as the number of landings between replacements. One
can develop a relationship between flying time and the
 Reliability of airplane brakes 147

n u m b e r o f l a n d i n g s b y using a c o r r e l a t i o n analysis.
H o w e v e r , in this s e c t i o n w e will use flying t i m e as an
i n d i c a t o r o f t h e life o f t h e b r a k e a s s e m b l i e s (it s h o u l d
b e k e p t in m i n d t h a t t h e r e is a definite c o r r e l a t i o n
b e t w e e n this t i m e a n d the n u m b e r o f l a n d i n g s ) . In this
type of aircraft there are four brake assemblies, two
on the left (1 a n d 2) a n d t w o o n t h e right (3 a n d 4)
(see Fig. 1). F o r t h e analysis w e used t h e E x c e l
p r o g r a m ( o t h e r s p r e a d s h e e t p r o g r a m s such as Q u a t r o
Pro and Lotus are equally suitable). Table 1

Table 1. Analysis of the wear]failure data of brake assembly 1

ti ti - tO i F = i/(n + 1) R = 1- F In(t/= tO) In( - In(R)) regression

225 22-5 1 0.035714 0.964285714 3.1135153 -3.3140758 -3-8236924

244 41.5 2 0.071429 0.928571429 3.7256934 -2.6022322 -3.0675212
337 134.5 3 0-107143 0.892857143 4.4015642 -2.177463 -1.6150688
344 141.5 4 0.142857 0.857142857 4.9522997 -1.8698247 -1.5523995
366 163.5 5 0-178571 0.821428571 5.096813 -1.6260232 -1.3738947
377 174.5 6 0.214286 0.785714286 5.1619247 -1.4222861 -1.2934677
387 184.5 7 0.25 0.75 5.2176495 - 1.2458993 - 1-2246357
417 214.5 8 0.285714 0.714285714 5.3683097 -1-0892396 -1.038538
425 222-5 9 0.321429 0.678571429 5.4049271 -0.9473544 -0.9933077
543 340.5 10 0.357143 0.642857143 5-8304151 -0.8168239 -0.4677388
553 350.5 11 0.392857 0.607142857 5-8593607 -0.8951669 -0.4319848
632 249.5 12 0-428571 0.571428571 6.0626217 - 0.5805048 -0.1809138
645 442.5 13 0.464286 0-535714286 6.0924405 -0.4713577 -0.1440813
656 453.5 14 0.5 0.5 6.1169953 -0.3665129 -0.1137509
666 463.5 15 0.535714 0.464285714 6.1388064 -0-2649359 -0.0868095
670 467.5 16 0.571429 0.428571429 6-1473993 -0.165703 -0.0761953
688 485-5 17 0-607143 0.392857143 6.1851793 -0.0679478 -0.029529
708 505.5 18 0.642857 0-357142857 6.225548 0.0291892 0.02033505
772 569.5 19 0.678571 0.321428571 6.3447588 0.126615 0.16758587
803 600.5 20 0-714286 0.285714286 6.3977626 0.2253515 0.233057
821 618.5 21 0.75 0.25 6.42729972 0.3266343 0.2695385
837 634.5 22 0.785714 0.214285714 6.4628373 0-4320714 0.30108599
848 645.5 23 0.821429 0.178571429 6.4700252 0.5439315 0.32231676
859 656.5 24 0.857143 0.142857143 6.4869227 0.6657298 0.34318877
860 657.5 25 0-892857 0.107042857 6.4884448 0.8036112 0.34506885
974 771.5 26 0.928571 0-071428571 6.6483367 0.9704218 0.54256963
993 790.5 27 0.964286 0.035714286 6.6826657 1.2036341 0.57262114

beta = 1.23521433
C = - 7-6695511
eta = 699.746196
to = 202.5
mean = 616.666667
Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0-960882
R Square 0"923294
Adjusted R Square 0"920226
Standard Error 0'316761
Observations 27

Analysis of Varience
df Sum of Squares Mean Square F Significance F

Regression 1 30.19356043 30.19356 300.92032 1.8836E- 15

Residual 25 2.5084348 0"1003374
Total 26 32.70199523

Coefficients Standard Error t Statistic P-value Significance F

Intercept -7.669551 0.415879542 -18.441761 1 . 8 7 5 E - 16 -8.5260705 -6.81303

I n ( t / - tO) 1.235214 0-071205996 17.347055 8.201E - 16 1-08856294 1.381866
148 A. Z. AI-Garni, A. Z. Sahin, A. A. Al-Farayedhi

represents the format of the analysis as outlined 2 {.~'"T . . . . . t - ~ " : ~ " i ~ , l , ,r}~!~.,.j-
below:
,.! ..........
Column 1 Flying time to ith brake assembly
wear/failure, t i
:
0 4 ............................
IY ~
-t
q

Column 2 t~- to, where to = 0.9t~, which was found

to be a reasonable value
Column 3 Wear/failure number of the brake
assembly i,i = 1,2,i,i = 1,2 ..... n -3 3- ~ ©
.

0
. . .

In(-In(R))
. i
]
Column 4 F(t,) = i/(n + 1) i" O J " ---- Regression i
Column 5 R(ti) = 1 - F(ti)
Column 6 ln(ti - to) = X,
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7
Column 7 In{In(I/r1 - F(ti)])} = Y/
In(ti-to)
Column 8 Values of Y,. estimated from best fitted
line for various specified values of Xi. Fig. 5. Weibuil plot for the wear/failure data of brake
assembly 2.
The data of column 7 vs column 6 is plotted in Fig.
4. The best fit line is shown on this figure. This line 2. the shape parameter /3 > 1, is observed in each
was obtained by the linear regression of column 7 and case, which reflects the time dependent
column 6 from the regression output in Table 1. The wear/failure rate, or an increasing wear/failure
Weibull parameters obtained are as follows: rate of brake assemblies; the range of /3
observed is 1.004 to 1.42; from Fig. 3, it
/3 = 1.235; 7/= 699.75 hours; to = 202.5 hours.
corresponds to the coefficient of variation in life
Thus, the reliability model for L1 is from 0.99 to 0.7.

R(t) = e x p [ _ ( t - 202"5 ) 1235] Before we propose a typical reliability model to

Similarly, the three other brake assemblies were
analyzed and the results are presented in Figs 5, 6, and
7 and are summarized in Table 2, where the average
life of the brake assemblies, 7", is calculated using
T = t 0 + ( 7 / - t o ) F ( 1 + 1//3) where F is the G a m m a
function.
A comparative assessment of the Weibull reliability
parameters of the brake assemblies on this plane
indicates that:
1. the minimum expected life to is in the range of
112.5 hours to 277.2 hours.
represent the average brake reliability to characterize
the performance of brake assemblies for an entire
fleet of similar type planes, it is necessary to analyze
the data of time to wear/failure presented in terms of
the number of landings.
5 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF BRAKE
ASSEMBLY WEAR/FAILURE DATA IN
TERMS OF NUMBER OF LANDINGS, N
Although the number of landings, N, represents a
discrete random variable, we will use it as a
continuous variable, similar to time t. However, in the
final results any fractional value of N will be rounded
to the nearest digit. The three parameter Weibull

2 .i, . . . . ~t ~ ~ ' ' ' t = ' ~ . ' ' r r i' " • - - ~-

J

01 T'; ~

~ -2 __
i
E " ' O ~ " "
-,3 -4-

t
-4 -i

- -
- - Regression
" " - F ~ , . . -~ i - 'I . . . . , .... - ~ 5
• :: ...... r ............... T " . ..... t . . . . . . . I .......

3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7

In(ti-to) In(ti-to)
Fig. 4. Weibull plot for the wear/failure data of brake Fig. 6. Weibull plot for the wear/failure data of brake
assembly 1. assembly 3.
 Reliability of airplane brakes 149

2 .... i i. . . . . . . . . . . . ! Table 3. Comparison of the life of the brake assemblies

1 ................................ ! Brake
as function of number of landin~

No r/N /3N Average

0 assembly (landings) (landings) life N
(landings)

1 271 824 1.480 733

°2 2
3
387
124
835
588
1.555
1.547
766
512
4 111 644 1.309 556

I
3 3.5 4 4.5
In(ti-to)
Fig. 7. Weibuli plot for the wear/failure data of brake
assembly 4.
reliability model, in this case, is:
R(N) = e x p [ - ( N - No '~"N1J N > N o
where:
No = the minimum expected brake assembly life,
expressed as the number of landings
r/N = the scale parameter of the brake assembly
when life N is measured in terms of the number of
landings
/3N=shape (scatter) parameter of the brake
assembly life N, measured in terms of the number
of landings.
The data of the four brake assemblies analyzed in
Section 4 was analyzed again using the number of
landings as the random variable, and the results are
summarized in Table 3.
The following observations are made from these
tables:
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 = ~ r h / 4 = 608.83 hours. Therefore K2 = ~N/
= 1.188.
3. The shape or scatter parameter fin varies within
a range of 1.309 to 1.555. The average value of
/3N is /3N = E/3N~/4 = 1.473. The average value of
/3 is /3 = E/3,/4 = 1.253. Therefore g 3 =/3N//3 =
1.176.
Thus, a single representative reliability model for
brake assemblies used on an entire fleet can be
represented by a model in terms of average reliability
parameters, No, r/s, and/3N and is given by:
: e x p [ - ( N - No F 1
R(N) \-~--N--~o/--]
which can be integrated in a computerized material
requirement planning system to determine the number
of brake assemblies needed for a specified planning
horizon, either in terms of number of flights, or the
corresponding number of anticipated landings (and
take offs). The forecast can be based upon:
1. a schedule of brake assembly replacement policy
operating at an optimal risk level; or
2. a wear/failure replacement strategy, in a renewal
theory framework.

1. The minimum expected life, No, is within a range
of 111 landings to 578 landings. The average
value of No is N0 = x-S,NoJ4 = 223 landings. The
average value of to is t0 = ~toi/4 = 179.78 hours.
Therefore K1 = No~to= 1.24.
2. The scale parameter r/N varies from 588 to 835
landings. The average value of r/N is "q/~=
--~,~?N,/4= 723 landings. The average value of 7/is
In addition to these forecasts, if reliability models of
the brake assemblies of competing manufacturers are
developed, they will provide a valuable insight into
the quality of the manufacturer, and the dollar worth
of each brake assembly in view of its reliability.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS

Table 2. Comparison of the life of brake assemblies as a A spreadsheet format using Weibull analysis is
function of time proposed to analyze the data. The data of time to
wear/failure of aircraft brake assemblies has been
Brake to (hours) r/(hours) /3 Average
assembly life T used.
(hours) The resulting model can be used to schedule a
preventive policy for brake assembly replacement
1 202.5 699.7 1-235 616.7 corresponding to an optimal level of brake assembly
2 277.2 719.4 1-420 650.3 reliability; to determine logistical support for a
3 126.9 477.6 1.352 433-8
4 112.5 538.6 1.004 476-8 specified planning horizon, say for a period of two
years; by determining therein the number of flying
150 A. Z. Al-Garni, A. Z. Sahin, A. A. Al-Farayedhi
hours, one can determine the brake assemblies
required during this time; to comparatively assess the
quality and performance of the brake assemblies of
different manufacturers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to the local aviation authority
for supplying the data and to King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals for supporting this research.
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