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Boolean difference techniques in fault tree analysis

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Abstract

For an electrical, mechanical, or hybrid system described diagramatically as a network of interconnected components, fault tree modeling of system reliability as a function of individual component failure probabilities gives rise to logic expressions obtained from the network connections. Application of the method of Boolean differences in the analysis of such Boolean expressions is discussed, and it is shown that the influence of the status of specific components on the reliability of the total system may be investigated by straightforward algebraic operations on the network failure function.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

    M. G. Thomason

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas

    E. W. Page

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina

    E. W. Page

Authors
  1. M. G. Thomason
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  2. E. W. Page
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Thomason, M.G., Page, E.W. Boolean difference techniques in fault tree analysis. International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 5, 81–88 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991073

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991073

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