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Fault and Event Tree Basics PDF
Fault and Event Tree Basics PDF
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3) How likely to occur are these undesirable consequences, or what are their
probabilities or frequencies?
• Two common methods of answering this last question are Fault Tree Analysis
and Event Tree Analysis.
• A fault tree is an event tree, where failures are emphasized rather than
successes
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• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is one of the most important logic and probabilistic • The undesired event is stated at the top of the tree
techniques used in Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and system reliability
assessment. • The fault tree gates specify logical combinations of
basic events that lead to the top event
• Fault Tree Analysis is a deductive method for identifying ways in which hazards
can lead to accident.
• Fault trees can be used to identify system weaknesses
• Fault trees can help recognize interrelationships
• The approach starts with a well defined accident, or top event, and works between fault events
backwards towards the various scenarios that can cause the accident.
• Fault trees consist of logic gates and basic events as AND Gate:
• Fault trees are used to determine the probability of a “top event” (e.g., core inputs to the logic gates
damage).
• Logic Gates: Boolean operations (union or
• Top event defines the failure or success of a system or component intersection) of the input events
• Fault trees use a structure of logical operations to calculate the probability of the • Basic Events: Faults such as a hardware failure,
top event as a result of “basic events” inputs human error, or adverse condition
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AND Gate: For the top event to occur all the bottom events should
occur.
E.g. Fuel, Oxygen and Ignition source has to be present
for fire.
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B C A fault tree:
Switch A Battery B • Is a systematic representation of such
Open 0 Volts chains of events.
• Uses logical gates to represent the
interrelationships between events and
Basic events
TLE, e.g. AND, OR.
An example fault tree
Logically: (A + (B + C)) . (C + (A . B))
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• Cut Set: is a set of basic events whose simultaneous occurrence ensures that
the TOP event occurs.
• Minimal Cut Set: is a cut set that does not contain another cut set as a
subset.
• Each minimal cut set is an AND gate with a set of basic event inputs
necessary and sufficient to cause the top event.
• The fault tree can be represented by the TOP structure and the minimal cut
sets connected through a single OR-gate.
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Solve the Fault Tree: • The fault tree on the left has two minimal cut
sets: C (single point of failure) and A.B (cut
• Assign probabilities of failure to the lowest level event in each branch of the tree. set of order 2).
• From this data the intermediate event frequency and the top level event frequency
can be determined using Boolean Algebra and Minimal Cut Set methods.
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Consider the following block diagram. Let I/P and O/P be the input and output terminals.
Steps to get the final Boolean equation: There are two sub-systems A and B that are connected in series.
TOP
1. Replace AND gates with the product of their inputs.
IE1 = A.B
X1 X3
IE2 = C.D INPUT OUTPUT
2. Replace OR gates with the sum of their inputs. IE1 IE2
X2 X4
TOP = IE1+IE2
= A.B+C.D SUB - SYSTEM (A) SUB - SYSTEM (B)
A B C D
3. Continue this replacement until all intermediate event gates
have been replaced and only the basic events remain in the
For this the fault tree analysis diagram shown in next slide
equation.
TOP = A.B+C.D
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Procedure
Continue….. F (S) Top event
Boolean Algebra Reduction Example:
TOP = IE1 + IE2
= (A.B) + (A + IE3) OR
TOP
= A.B + A + (C.D.IE4)
= A.B + A + (C.D.D.B)
IE1 IE2
= A + A.B + B.C.D.D (D.D = D) F (A) F (B)
intermediate event
= A + A.B + B.C.D (A + A.B = A)
A B A IE3
= A + B.C.D
Here F(X1) , F(X2) , F(X3), F(A4) Are Events Fail… • Use of FTA to prioritize the contributors leading to the top event.
F (A) = SUB – SYSTEM (A) FAILS • Use of FTA as a proactive tool to prevent the top event.
• Use to determine the minimal cut sets. • Require considerable amount of time to complete.
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Step 7: Evaluation
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ADVANTAGES
• Structured, rigorous, and methodical approach.
DISADVANTAGES
• An ETA can only have one initiating event, therefore multiple ETAs will be
required to evaluate the consequence of multiple initiating events.