Fault Tree Analysis

Faultless to a fault. - Robert Browning

Albert Hsu

Introduction

Fault identification, correction and tolerance to

improve design

Fault Tree Analysis

A method to decompose it and look for situation

that might lead to failure (Software Engineering)
Displayed the logical path from effect to cause

Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

The Fault Tree

Begin Fault Analysis by identifying possible failures

in design operation or maintenance

Next build a graph whose nodes are failures

Single contents
System function
Entire system

Edge = relationship among nodes by logical

descriptor (AND,OR)
Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

The Fault Tree

Figure 5.19 Portion of power plant control system

Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

Cut-set Tree

From Fault tree to cut-set tree

To find single points of failure in complex tree

Figure 5.20 Cut-set tree generated form the fault tree

Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

Fixing the Failure

Remove it

Add components or conditions to prevent the

input condition that cause the fault to be
executed

Add components that will recover from the

damage the failure will cause
Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

Some faults

Time-consuming in constructing the graphs

Many systems involve many dependencies

Difficult to detect inconsistencies

Difficult to focus only on the most critical parts of
the design on high coupling systems

Not always easy to spot

Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006

Reference

Atlee, Joanne, Software Engineering Theory

and Practice, Pearson Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 2006, pg264-266

Fault Tree Analysis, Fall 2006