Session: 7A, Tuesday 13:50-15:30
Core Tutor: John Andrews, Ph.D.
A fault tree represents the causes of a specified system failure mode in terms of the failure modes of the system components. The analysis of the fault tree can produce two types of result: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative results specify the minimal contributions of component failures which result in system failure. Quantification provides the probability or frequency of the system failure modes.
The tutorial will explain the mathematics used to perform a fault tree analysis. A considerable focus of the tutorial will also be on the development of the fault tree model from the engineering system.
John Andrews is Professor of Systems Reliability in the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. He recently transferred to this department from the Mathematical Sciences Department where he had worked since he joined Loughborough University in 1989. The prime focus of his research has been on methods for predicting system reliability in terms of the component failure probabilities and a representation of the system structure. Much of this work has concentrated on the Fault Tree technique and the use of the Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) as an efficient and accurate solution method. He is the author of over 100 research papers on this topic and is joint author, with Bob Moss, of a text book, Reliability and Risk Assessment, now in its second edition, published by ASME. John is a member of the Safety and Reliability Group of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). He is also Editor of the Journal of Risk and Reliability the new part O of the IMechE Proceedings and a member of the Editorial Boards for Reliability Engineering and System Safety and Quality and Reliability Engineering International.