Work

A Robust Sustainability Assessment Methodology for Aircraft Parts: Application to a Fuselage Panel

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper presents a cradle-to-gate sustainability assessment methodology specifically designed to evaluate aircraft components in a robust and systematic manner. This methodology integrates multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis across ten criteria, categorized under environmental impact, cost, and performance. Environmental impact is analyzed through lifecycle assessment and cost through lifecycle costing, with both analyses facilitated by SimaPro 9.6.0.1 software. Performance is measured in terms of component mass and specific stiffness. The robustness of this methodology is tested through various MCDM techniques, normalization approaches, and objective weighting methods. To demonstrate the methodology, this paper assesses the sustainability of a fuselage panel, comparing nine variants that differ in materials, joining techniques, and part thicknesses. All approaches consistently identify thermoplastic CFRP panels as the most sustainable option, with the geometric mean aggregation of weights providing balanced criteria consideration across environmental, cost, and performance aspects. The adaptability of this proposed methodology is illustrated, showing its applicability to any aircraft component with the requisite data. This structured approach offers critical insights to support sustainable decision-making in aircraft component design and procurement.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su17083299

Authors: Aikaterini Anagnostopoulou, Dimitris Sotiropoulos, Konstantinos Tserpes

Institutions: University of Patras, University of Peloponnese

Language: English

Topic: Multi-Criteria Decision Making

Subfield: Management Science and Operations Research

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Responsible consumption and production, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896