Fault tree analysis based on TOPSIS and triangular fuzzy number

Abstract

Fault tree analysis (FTA) is widely used in the failure probability evaluation of a system. The conventional failure probabilities of basic events are treated as crisp values. However, in many real applications, it is often difficult to evaluate failure probabilities of basic events from past occurrences. In order to address this issue, a new FTA method based on the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution and the triangular fuzzy number is presented. Compared with the existing method, our proposed method is more efficient with less complexity.