Method for analyzing an aircraft electrical structure by searching for equipotentials in embedded graphs

A method for assisting in locating and correcting a fault or defect in an electrical structure of an aircraft, wherein the electrical structure comprises equipment items interconnected by cables, the method comprising the following steps performed by a processing system including electronic circuitry:

• constructing a digital representation of the electrical structure, wherein the digital representation includes nested graphs representing the electrical structure, wherein the nested graphs include:
• a first graph representing the electrical structure by first nodes and first arcs, wherein the first arcs represent the cables of the electrical structure and the first nodes represent the equipment items of the electrical structure interconnected by the cables, and
• second graphs each representing a corresponding one of the first nodes and each of the second graphs represent an internal structure of interconnection between at least one input and at least one output of the equipment item represented by the corresponding first node, and wherein each of the second graphs include a representation of an internal interconnection structure of the equipment item represented by the corresponding first node, wherein the representation includes second arcs representing interconnections of the internal interconnection structure between inputs and outputs, and second nodes representing the at least one input and the at least one output of the equipment item represented by the second node,
• wherein the first graph is obtained from contextual data relating to the electrical structure and each of the second graphs are obtained from a generic model associated with a type of equipment item represented by the second graph;
• performing a reflectometry operation on the electrical structure from a termination point in the electric structure, from an input of one the equipment items or from an output of one the equipment items, wherein the reflectometry operation determines a distance in the electrical structure from the termination point or the input or the output of the one of the equipment items to a fault or failure in the electric structure,
• performing a search for and identifying equipotentials in the digital representation by browsing through the nested graphs, wherein the search for equipotentials is performed from the first node corresponding to the termination point, the input of the one of the equipment items or the output of the one of the equipment items;
• identifying locations on the digital representation the electrical structure based on the equipotentials which correspond to locations where a fault or failure may be present in the electrical structure;
• and
• repairing or correcting the fault or failure by modifying the electrical structure at the location of the fault or failure.