Common-cause failure analysis in event assessment

Abstract

This paper reviews the basic concepts of modelling common-cause failures (CCFs) in reliability and risk studies and then applies these concepts to the treatment of CCF in event assessment. The cases of a failed component (with and without shared CCF potential) and a component being unavailable due to preventive maintenance or testing are addressed. The treatment of two related failure modes (e.g. failure to start and failure to run) is a new feature of this paper, as is the treatment of asymmetry within a common-cause component group.

Keywords

common-cause failure event assessment probabilistic risk assessment basic parameter model alpha-factor model conditional probability dependent failure

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