Fault Tree Analysis to Analyze System Failure

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a common tool used to analyze an event and predict how and how often it will fail using graphics and statistics. It is used in engineering and business to aid process and system development.

FTA is a deductive reasoning technique that focuses on one particular accident event. The fault tree itself is a graphic model that displays the various combinations of equipment faults and failures that can result in the accident event.
The strength of FTA as a qualitative tool is its ability to break down an accident into basic equipment failures and human errors. This allows the safety analyst to focus preventive measures on these basic causes to reduce the probability of an accident.

Read More: Failure Mode and Effect

Advantages

• Very easy to understand
• An effective way to diagram problems in a system
• Helps to organize possible causes of a problem in the system 

Data Requirements

• A complete understanding of how the plant/system functions.
• Knowledge of the plant/system equipment failure modes and their effects on the plant/system.

How does to its work?

• Uses a variety of gates and events to explain the system
• Uses a top-down approach to its logic
• End result is at the top of the tree and what leads to that result follows under it