The effect of design parameters on light aircraft flaps mechanism's reliability

The present research aim is to evaluate effective design parameters on reliability of a light aircraft’s flap mechanism which equipped by electrical actuators. The flap mechanism configuration and parts were explained and the associated fault tree for the mechanism were drawn to investigate the influence of any individual part’s failure on system reliability. Also, reliability block diagram for the flap mechanism and supporting structure were depicted and associated to this diagram, system reliability were demonstrated according to each element. It has been investigated that without periodical check, the reliability drops significantly. Moreover, preflight checks effect on flap mechanism’s reliability were studied and shown the effective character of this check on the flight reliability.