Abstract
Fault tree analysis (FTA) is commonly used when conducting risk assessments of industrial systems. A number of computer packages based on conventional analysis methods are available to perform the analysis. However, dealing with large (possibly non-coherent) fault trees can expose the limitations of the technique in terms of accuracy of the solutions and the processing time required. Over recent years the binary decision diagram (BDD) method has been developed for the solution of the fault tree and overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional FTA approaches. The usual way of taking advantage of the BDD structure is to construct a fault tree and then convert it to a BDD. This paper focuses on the fault tree to BDD conversion process. Converting the fault tree requires the basic events of the fault tree to be placed in an ordering. This is critical to the size of the final BDD and ultimately affects the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the system and benefits of this method. Once the ordering is established several approaches can be used for the BDD generation. One approach is to apply a set of rules developed by Rauzy which are repeatedly applied to each gate in the fault tree to generate the BDD. An alternative approach can be used when BDD constructs for each of the gate types are first built and then connected together. A sub-node sharing feature in the second of these approaches and a third, hybrid, combined approach is presented. Some remarks on the effectiveness of these techniques are provided.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.