Fault tree analysis based on Binary Decision Diagrams
Peng Ren · Railway Computer Application · 2009
In order to overcome the deficiency of fault tree analysis (FTA), the Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) method was introduced to convert a fault tree to a BDD and obtain the minimal cut sets and the exact top event probability by traversing the resulting BDD from up to bottom. An ordering of the fault tree basic events had a crucial effect on the size of the resulting BDD. The basic events ordering method proposed in this paper first implemented a simplification technique for the fault tree to remove redundant terms without changing the underlying logic, and then the basic event of the simplified fault tree could be ordered from a structure importance point of view. An example illustrated that the basic events ordering method presented in this paper was efficient, and the resulting BDD could simplify both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the fault tree.