Safety Analysis Model of DUCG Based on FMEA/FTA

Abstract

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a useful tool to find possible flaws, to reduce cost and to shorten research cycle in complex industrial systems. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) has gained credibility over the past years, not only in nuclear industry, but also in other industries like aerospace, petrochemical, and weapon. Both FMEA and FTA are effective techniques in safety analysis, but there are still many uncertain factors in them that are not well addressed until now. This paper combines FMEA and FTA based on Dynamic Uncertain Causality Graph (DUCG) to solve this issue. Firstly, the FMEA model is mapped into a corresponding DUCG graph. Secondly, FTA model is mapped into a corresponding DUCG graph. Thirdly, combine the above DUCG graphs. Finally, users can modify the combined DUCG graph and calculations are made. This paper bridges the gap between FMEA and FTA by combining the two methods using DUCG. And additional modeling power and analytical power can be achieved with the advantages of the combined DUCG safety analysis model and its inference algorithm. This method can also promote the application of DUCG in the system reliability and safety analysis. An example is used to illustrate this method.