A sensor selection method using a performance metric for phased missions of aircraft fuel systems

In this paper, the sensor performance metric proposed by Reeves et al. [1] is extended to consider a phased mission operation, with component failures occurring at various points in the mission. The performance metric favours sensors that can detect the most failures, the failures that affect the system for longest and the failures that cause system failure. In addition, the performance metric considers the ability of sensors to distinguish between component failures, i.e. to diagnose which components have caused the faults observed by these sensors. The proposed approach is illustrated on the Airbus A380-800 fuel system, where the best combination is found using the performance metric within a Genetic Algorithm method.