Reliability Assessment of the Lift Powertrain in a Lift-Plus-Cruise eVTOL: A Solution Method for GSPN

doi:10.23940/ijpe.26.05.p1.237244

Int J Performability Eng ›› 2026, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (5): 237-244.doi: 10.23940/ijpe.26.05.p1.237244

Reliability Assessment of the Lift Powertrain in a Lift-Plus-Cruise eVTOL: A Solution Method for GSPN

Chaohui Liu^a, Yi Lu^a,b,*, Yixuan Wang^a, and Yu Zhang^c

^aSchool of Automation and Intelligent Sensing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China;
^bNational Key Laboratory of Avionics Integration and Aviation System-of-Systems Synthesis, Shanghai, China;
^cUrban and Traffic Planning Design Institute, Shanghai Urban Construction Design & Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China

Submitted on ; Revised on ; Accepted on
Contact: * E-mail address: luyi1@sjtu.edu.cn

Abstract

Abstract: The lift-plus-cruise electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft represents a major eVTOL configuration. However, the reliability of its lift powertrain has attracted increasing research attention because of its complex redundant architecture and dynamic failure behaviors. This paper proposes a reliability assessment framework for the lift powertrain of a lift-plus-cruise eVTOL in which a dynamic fault tree (DFT) model is mapped onto a generalized stochastic Petri net (GSPN) model, and a discrete event simulation (DES)-based GSPN quantitative analysis algorithm is developed. Based on this framework, the reliability of the lift powertrain is evaluated, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated through comparison with results from a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS)-based DFT. The simulation results indicate that the high-voltage battery is the most critical component affecting system reliability. Reducing its failure rate leads to substantially greater improvement in system reliability compared to improving other components, providing quantitative guidance for lift powertrain architecture optimization.

Key words: eVTOL, dynamic fault tree, generalized stochastic Petri nets, Monte Carlo simulation, discrete event simulation

Chaohui Liu, Yi Lu, Yixuan Wang, and Yu Zhang. Reliability Assessment of the Lift Powertrain in a Lift-Plus-Cruise eVTOL: A Solution Method for GSPN [J]. Int J Performability Eng, 2026, 22(5): 237-244.

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Reliability Assessment of the Lift Powertrain in a Lift-Plus-Cruise eVTOL: A Solution Method for GSPN

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