Application of Fault Tree and Other Network Techniques

As discussed before, fault tree analysis is a technique by which many events affecting a system which interact to produce other events, and ultimately system failure, can be related using simple logical relationships as part of a tree network structure. The logical relationships define the interaction of the events and allow the methodical construction of the fault tree structure. As noted, a fault tree usually starts with a top event, which, is incurred as a result of the occurrence of primary events which in turn are caused by secondary, lower order and command events. A simple example of an on-line redundant system is shown in Figure 12.1.