Fault Tree Analysis
Abstract
Chris and Fred discuss the basics and uses of fault tree analysis. Chances are that if you have been taught about fault trees, it was for only one of the many ways you could use them.
Key Points
Join Chris and Fred as they discuss a couple of uses along with the basics of conducting fault tree analysis, or FTA.
Topics include:
- What is a fault tree? It is a logical diagram that represents (for example) which combinations of components need to fail to cause system failure, or what different root causes led to something ‘bad.’
- System reliability modelling ... involves creating a fault tree to model how components in a system need to fail to cause failure. Fault trees can then show how redundant components can improve system reliability, and incorporate many different configurations (parallel, ‘k’ out of ‘n’, and so on) to do so.
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA) … involves creating a fault tree to visualize the different causal chains from potential root causes of failure (or something bad happening). Fault trees are inherently ‘deductive,’ which is a fancy way of describing what we do when we ‘brainstorm’ different potential explanations for things occurring. We really want to find as many explanations for something occurring to either prioritize our efforts in confirming which ones are true or which are the most cost-effective ones to address and make the problem go away.
- They’re not good for modelling ‘dynamic’ situations … where logic changes. Think about accident scenarios, or whenever it is important for events to occur in a specific sequence. Don’t use fault trees for these.
- It’s often about facilitating a group, especially for RCA. Facilitation is key. And a fault tree is only as good as this facilitation.
Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.
Show Notes
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