To read this content please select one of the options below:

Analysis of chaotic dynamics for aircraft assembly lines

Bo Xin (School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)
Yuan Li (School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China)
Jian-feng Yu (School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China)
Jie Zhang (School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China)

Assembly Automation

ISSN: 0144-5154

Article publication date: 14 December 2017

Issue publication date: 23 January 2018

253

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of the aircraft assembly lines. An approach for modeling and analyzing the production rate of an aircraft assembly line is introduced using the chaos theory.

Design/methodology/approach

First, two key system variables including reliability and learning ability are considered to control the dynamics model. The discrete-time dynamics equation of the production rate is established as a function of the reliability and the learning rate. Then an improved Gauss-learning curve is proposed and applied to aircraft assembling condition. Finally, the bifurcation diagrams and the maximal Lyapunov exponents are used and applied to the experimental study to analyze the dynamic behavior under different combinations of parameters.

Findings

On the basis of the experimental study, it is shown that chaotic behavior really exists in the aircraft assembly lines. The reliability and the Gauss-learning curve can nonlinearly affect the production rate.

Originality/value

This paper applied nonlinear dynamics and chaotic theory to the production analyses of the aircraft assembly lines for the first time. The proposed model has been successfully applied to a practical case, and the result justifies its advantage as well as feasibility to both theory and engineering application.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and China Scholarship Council. The authors also would like to thank to the editors and reviewers for their elaborate work.

Citation

Xin, B., Li, Y., Yu, J.-f. and Zhang, J. (2018), "Analysis of chaotic dynamics for aircraft assembly lines", Assembly Automation, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 20-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/AA-08-2016-086

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles