Automated Method for Balancing Avionics Requirements and LIfe Cycle Costs

Avionics systems repairs are responsible for as much as 42% of the life cycle cost of an aircraft, making it important to minimize avionic suite cost while maintaining performance. Currently, there is no unified method of determining the trade-offs between avionics suite performance and life cycle cost. The best approach to a unified solution is to let mission requirements define the avionics systems. Once the system is designed the power level is used to correlate electronic packaging and cooling systems. There is a considerable amount of information available in the literature and data bases on failure mechanisms, costs, and cooling for electronic packages. The relationships between variables in this system are known but tend to be non-linear, discontinuous, and contain step functions that make analysis using conventional techniques difficult. A computer program is needed that will handle the large complicated domain this problem presents and calculate the relatively simple range (Life Cycle Cost). The optimum computer algorithm to handle this problem is genetic. With genetic algorithms a generic code will be established that will handle all possibilities of electronic package technology, cooling technology, airframe constraints and repair scenarios. The results will enable users to identify all suitable combinations of technology and assess risk.