Incorporating Common-Cause Failures Into the Modular Hierarchical Systems Analysis

• Published in: IEEE transactions on reliability Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 10 - 19
• Main Authors: Liudong Xing, Shrestha, A., Meshkat, L., Wendai Wang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2009; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Binary decision diagrams; Boolean functions; Combinatorial analysis; Common-cause failure; Computational complexity; Data structures; dynamic hierarchical system; Dynamic tests; Dynamical systems; Dynamics; Electronic design automation and methodology; Failure; Failure analysis; Fault trees; Hierarchical systems; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Modular; modular approach; phased-mission system; Redundancy; Reliability
• ISSN: 0018-9529; 1558-1721
• DOI: 10.1109/TR.2008.2011855

This paper considers the problem of evaluating the reliability of hierarchical systems subject to common-cause failures (CCF); and dynamic failure behavior such as spares, functional dependence, priority dependence, and dependence caused by multi-phased operations. We present a separable solution that has low computational complexity, and which is easy to integrate into existing analytical methods. The resulting approach is applicable to Markov analyses, and combinatorial models for the modular analysis of the system reliability. We illustrate the approach, and the advantages of the proposed approach, through the detailed analyses of two examples of dynamic hierarchical systems subject to CCF.