System Engineering Methods for Reliable Electrical Power Train Design for All Electric Aircraft

Reliability management, including hazard and risk analysis, is essential for the product development of All Electric Aircraft (AEA) systems to ensure the safety of people and the robustness of the system. In this study, a Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) approach is proposed that integrates reliability and safety analysis into an accessible system model that improves collaboration among stakeholders, especially those with framed technical involvement. Using a bond graph-based method in Mathworks’ System Composer, the interfaces and interactions of the components are modelled and the consequences of possible failures are shown. Established methods, such as Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) are compared. All of these safety analyzes are compatible with the proposed MBSE approach. The aim is to outline an approach to analyze system reliability and safety rather than cataloguing every possible failure of an electric drive system. This method provides structured, visual means of analyzing complex failures that go beyond traditional, spreadsheet-based documentation, allowing for better alignment between safety and design.