DFTCalc: a tool for efficient fault tree analysis (extended version)
Florian Arnold, Axel Belinfante, Freark I. van der Berg, Dennis Guck, Mariëlle I. A. Stoelinga · University of Twente Research Information · 2013
Abstract. Effective risk management is a key to ensure that our nuclear power plants, medical equipment, and power grids are dependable; and it is often required by law. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a widely used methodology here, computing important dependability measures like sys-tem reliability. This paper presents DFTCalc, a powerful tool for FTA, providing (1) efficient fault tree modelling via compact representations; (2) effective analysis, allowing a wide range of dependability properties to be analysed (3) efficient analysis, via state-of-the-art stochastic tech-niques; and (4) a flexible and extensible framework, where gates can eas-ily be changed or added. Technically, DFTCalc is realised via stochastic model checking, an innovative technique offering a wide plethora of pow-erful analysis techniques, including aggressive compression techniques to keep the underlying state space small. 1