Automated Common Cause Failure Analysis for System Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity of technical systems makes it difficult to identify and evaluate common cause failures, which can lead to system component failures or even system failure, due to factors like design principles, manufacturers, lifecycle procedures, and spatial proximity, requiring efficient analytical methods to assess and mitigate these risks.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that processes machine-readable spatial and lifecycle data to analyze susceptibility to common cause failures using analytical artifacts like fault trees and Markov chains, automatically generating quantitative results and triggering countermeasures based on a common cause failure model.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual FMEA analysis is performed by domain experts for each component, then comprehensive failure mode identification is achieved, but significant time, effort, and costs are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the complex manual FMEA process into automated computational tasks. The processor divides the analysis into component-level failure mode identification, common cause failure detection, and quantitative evaluation, processing each segment systematically to reduce overall analysis time while maintaining completeness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical manual analysis process performed by domain experts with an automated computational system. The processor executes algorithms that automatically generate FMEA tables and identify common cause failures, substituting human manual work with machine-based computational methods to dramatically reduce time and cost
2Reliability
If conventional manual safety analysis techniques are used for complex technical systems, then safety criteria assessment is performed, but the increasing system complexity makes analysis more difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts its analysis capabilities to handle varying system complexities. The processor automatically adjusts the depth and scope of FMEA analysis based on the input technical system description, enabling flexible handling of both simple and complex systems without requiring manual reconfiguration of the analysis methodology
Solution Approach 2:
The automated system performs safety analysis independently without requiring continuous expert intervention. The processor self-manages the entire FMEA process including generating failure modes, identifying common cause failures, and producing quantitative results, making the system self-sufficient in handling complex technical systems
3Device complexity
If common cause failures are not considered in safety analysis, then analysis simplicity is maintained, but system reliability assessment becomes inadequate and risk mitigation is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of common cause failure factors before conducting the main reliability assessment. By proactively detecting components that share common failure causes (such as same manufacturer, design, or installation location) and pre-calculating their combined failure probabilities, the system prepares the necessary data structures and risk metrics in advance, enabling comprehensive reliability assessment without excessive complexity during the main analysis phase
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a method and system for identifying and evaluating common cause failures of system components, wherein at least one analytical artifact and machine readable system related to at least one of spatial, topological data and machine readable system related lifecycle data are processed to analyze automatically a susceptibility of system components to common cause failure based on common cause failure influencing factors.