Airfleet maintenance case study

Abstract

Aircraft gas turbine engines are very complex equipment and their operation is of vast importance for both Original Engine Manufacturers and airline companies. Considering the contracts signed between manufacturers and operators, the former has to estimate the costs of each shop visit, along with necessary reserves for life limited parts, and the latter has to predict the available operational time between shop visits. The accurate prediction of shop visit intervals, costs and necessary reserves, enable both the engine manufacturer and the operator to plan the engine operation in such a way to make their products and services more attractive and competitive, with minimising cost and maximising income. The focus of this project is to create Cost Estimating Relationships in order to achieve accurate predictions for short-haul engines. These relationships link the engine performance parameters to its maintenance schedule and costs. The performance of the engine and the aircraft are simulated in order to be included in the analysis of the schedule and costs. At the end, operational severity is examined and used to quantify the effect of operation to maintenance planning. The resulting models of this project incorporates performance models, cost estimating relationships and severity curves to estimate the maintenance intervals and costs for a particular engine and aircraft flying at various routes. These results are used to study the effect of operation on maintenance planning, and they are used to form some basis for airfleet maintenance schedule planning.