60803: Student mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, sustainability sciences or similar (f...

Area of research:

Scientific support staff,Other,Diploma & Master Thesis

Part-Time Suitability:

The position is suitable for part-time employment.

Job description:

Research in the field of new aircraft concepts (e.g. hybrid-electric aircraft) for more sustainable flight operations is steadily increasing. Life cycle assessment (LCA) methods are often used to determine the ecological impacts, as they can provide a holistic statement on all life cycle phases. However, the area of maintenance is often considered in a very simplified way or completely neglected. Especially in the case of new aircraft concepts, it is even more important to assess the ecological impact of aircraft maintenance, since these will probably change with the use of innovative technologies (fuel cells, batteries, etc.).

There are already some methods that can be used for an environmental assessment of aircraft maintenance, such as economic input-output LCA, process-based LCA or similar. However, these methods are mostly not detailed enough and cannot be broken down to individual maintenance activities or components. Within the scope of this work, the objective is to create a concept that is capable of ecologically analysing aircraft maintenance. There are already methods available in the literature that are to be analysed and combined with each other in such a way that it is possible to break down the ecological share to individual systems (e.g. at ATA chapter level) in order to then be able to compare these with new technologies in perspective.

The following aspects, among others, should be considered when working on the task:

• Extensive literature research and familiarisation with the subject matter


• Characterisation and clustering of relevant aircraft maintenance activities and characteristics


• Analysis and comparison of possible LCA methods for the estimation of aircraft maintenance


• Development of a concept (e.g. combination of different literature approaches) which can be used to assess aircraft maintenance ecologically


• Application of the developed methodology and performance of an LCA with calculation of the environmental impact on system or component level


• Carrying out a sensitivity analysis to identify ecologically critical components and maintenance activities

This research center is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. With more than 42,000 employees and an annual budget of over € 5 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest scientific organisation.