Safety systems are designed to prevent the occurrence of certain conditions and their future development into a hazardous situation. The consequence of the failure of a safety system of a potentially hazardous industrial system or process varies from minor inconvenience and cost to personal injury, significant economic loss and death. To minimise the likelihood of a hazardous situation, safety systems must be designed to maximise their availability. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to propose an effective safety system design optimization scheme. A multi-objective genetic algorithm has been adopted, where the criteria catered for includes unavailability, cost, spurious trip and maintenance down time. Analyses of individual system designs are carried out using the latest advantages of the fault tree analysis technique and the binary decision diagram approach (BDD). The improved strength Pareto evolutionary approach (SPEA2) is chosen to perform the system optimization resulting in the final design specifications. The practicality of the developed approach is demonstrated initially through application to a High Integrity Protection System (HIPS) and subsequently to test scalability using the more complex Firewater Deluge System (FDS). Computer code has been developed to carry out the analysis. The results for both systems are compared to those using a single objective optimization approach (GASSOP) and exhaustive search. The overall conclusions show a number of benefits of the SPEA2 based technique application to the safety system design optimization. It is common for safety systems to feature dependency relationships between its components. To enable the use of the fault tree analysis technique and the BDD approach for such systems, the Markov method is incorporated into the optimization process. The main types of dependency which can exist between the safety system component failures are identified. The Markov model generation algorithms are suggested for each type of dependency. The modified optimization tool is tested on the HIPS and FDS. Results comparison shows the benefit of using the modified technique for safety system optimization. Finally the effectiveness and application to general safety systems is discussed.

The focus of this thesis is to develop a generic approach for solving reliability design optimisation problems which could be applicable to a diverse range of real engineering systems. The basic problem in optimal reliability design of a system is to explore the means of improving the system reliability within the bounds of available resources. Improving the reliability reduces the likelihood of system failure. The consequences of system failure can vary from minor inconvenience and cost to significant economic loss and personal injury. However any improvements made to the system are subject to the availability of resources, which are very often limited. The objective of the design optimisation problem analysed in this thesis is to minimise system unavailability (or unreliability if an unrepairable system is analysed) through the manipulation and assessment of all possible design alterations available, which are subject to constraints on resources and/or system performance requirements. This thesis describes a genetic algorithm-based technique developed to solve the optimisation problem. Since an explicit mathematical form can not be formulated to evaluate the objective function, the system unavailability (unreliability) is assessed using the fault tree method. Central to the optimisation algorithm are newly developed fault tree modification patterns (FTMPs). They are employed here to construct one fault tree representing all possible designs investigated, from the initial system design specified along with the design choices. This is then altered to represent the individual designs in question during the optimisation process. Failure probabilities for specified design cases are quantified by employing Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs). A computer programme has been developed to automate the application of the optimisation approach to standard engineering safety systems. Its practicality is demonstrated through the consideration of two systems of increasing complexity; first a High Integrity Protection System (HIPS) followed by a Fire Water Deluge System (FWDS). The technique is then further-developed and applied to solve problems of multi-phased mission systems. Two systems are considered; first an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and secondly a military vessel. The final part of this thesis focuses on continuing the development process by adapting the method to solve design optimisation problems for multiple multi-phased mission systems. Its application is demonstrated by considering an advanced UAV system involving multiple multi-phased flight missions. The applications discussed prove that the technique progressively developed in this thesis enables design optimisation problems to be solved for systems with different levels of complexity. A key contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel generic optimisation technique, embedding newly developed FTMPs, which is capable of optimising the reliability design for potentially any engineering system. Another key and novel contribution of this work is the capability to analyse and provide optimal design solutions for multiple multi-phase mission systems. Keywords: optimisation, system design, multi-phased mission system, reliability, genetic algorithm, fault tree, binary decision diagram

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:37:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo5337_1.pdf: 2712381 bytes, checksum: ef54386909f89cae6f4af5d76ab17550 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco / Nos Sistemas Elétricos de Potência, os Compensadores Estáticos CE são equipamentos de elevada importância na regulação de tensão, tanto em regime permanente como em transitório, principalmente em sistemas onde os centros de carga estão localizados a grandes distâncias da geração. Esta dissertação, apresenta uma análise das causas de falha do Compensador Estático instalado na Subestação - SE de Fortaleza da Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco - CHESF, estado do Ceará, Brasil, com ênfase nas origens das falhas e em suas soluções, utilizando como ferramenta de análise a Árvore de Falhas deste Equipamento. Neste trabalho, encontramos a Árvore de Falhas do CE, composta por 62 eventos básicos, dos quais 20 apresentaram histórico suficiente para a análise paramétrica em um banco de dados de 22 anos. A partir das curvas de probabilidade de falha dos eventos básicos, elaborou-se um plano de ação com melhorias nos processos de manutenção, para viabilizar a elevação da disponibilidade do CE, com o objetivo de maximizar a remuneração da empresa Transmissora, no caso, a CHESF, e a confiabilidade do sistema de transmissão

Reliability based life cycle cost analysis is becoming an important consideration for decision-making in relation to bridge design, maintenance and rehabilitation. An optimal solution should ensure reliability during service life while minimizing the life cycle cost. Risk of failure is an important component in whole of life cycle cost for both new and existing structures. Research work presented here aimed to develop a methodology for evaluation of the risk of failure of reinforced concrete bridges to assist in decision making on rehabilitation. Methodology proposed here combines fault tree analysis and probabilistic time-dependent reliability analysis to achieve qualitative and quantitative assessment of the risk of failure. Various uncertainties are considered including the degradation of resistance due to initiation of a particular distress mechanism, increasing load effects, changes in resistance as a result of rehabilitation, environmental variables, material properties and model errors. It was shown that the proposed methodology has the ability to provide users two alternative approaches for qualitative or quantitative assessment of the risk of failure depending on availability of detailed data. This work will assist the managers of bridge infrastructures in making decisions in relation to optimization of rehabilitation options for aging bridges.

<p>Vehicles have been around in our society for over a century, until recently they have been standalone systems. With increased amounts of initiatives to inter-network vehicles to avoid accidents and reduce environmental impact the view of a vehicle as a standalone system needs to be reconsidered. Networking and cooperation between vehicles requires that all systems and the information therein are trustworthy. Faulty or malicious vehicle systems are thus not limited to only affecting a single vehicle but also the entire network. The detection of anomalous behavior in a vehicle computer system is therefore of importance. To improve the vehicle systems we strive to achieve security awareness within the vehicle computer system. As a first step we will identify threats toward the vehicle computer system and what has been done to address them.</p><p>We perform a threat analysis consisting of fault trees and misuse cases to identify the threats. The fault trees provide away to connect the threats found with vehicle stakeholders' goals. The connection between stakeholder goals and threat highlights the need for threat mitigation.</p><p>Several research initiatives are discussed to find out what has been done to address the identified threats and to find the state of the research for security in vehicle computer system.</p><p>Lastly, an error model for the Controller Area Network (CAN) is proposed to model the consequences of threats applied to the CAN bus.</p>

To improve safety, reliability, and efficiency of automotive vehicles and other technical applications, embedded systems commonly use fault diagnosis consisting of fault detection and isolation. Since many systems are constructed as distributed embedded systems including multiple control units, it is necessary to perform global fault isolation using for example a central unit. However, the drawbacks with such a centralized method are the need of a powerful diagnostic unit and the sensitivity against disconnections of this unit. Two alternative methods to centralized fault isolation are presented in this thesis. The first method performs global fault isolation by a istributed sequential computation. For a set of studied systems, themethod gives, compared to a centralizedmethod, amean reduction inmaximumprocessor load on any unitwith 40 and 70%for systems consisting of four and eight units respectively. The second method instead extends the result of the local fault isolation performed in each unit such that the results are globally correct. By only considering the components affecting each specific unit, the extended result in each agent is kept small. For a studied automotive vehicle, the second method gives, compared to a centralized method, a mean reduction in the sizes of the results and the maximum processor load on any unit with 85 and 90% respectively. To perform fault diagnosis, diagnostic tests are commonly used. If the additional evaluation of tests can not improve the fault isolation of a component then the component is ready. Since the evaluation of a test comes with a cost in for example computational resources, it is valuable to minimize the number of tests that have to be evaluated before readiness is achieved for all components. A strategy is presented that decides in which order to evaluate tests such that readiness is achieved with as few evaluations of tests as possible. Besides knowing how fault diagnosis is performed, it is also interesting to assess the effect that fault diagnosis has on for example safety. Since fault tree analysis often is used to evaluate safety, this thesis contributes with a systematic method that includes the effect of fault diagnosis in fault trees. The safety enhancement due to the use of fault diagnosis can thereby be analyzed and quantified.

Today's legislation on exhaust gas emissions for heavy duty diesel (HDD) vehicles is more stringent than ever and will be even more tough in the future. More over, in a few years HDD vehicles have to be equipped with OBD (On-Board Diagnostics). This place very high demands on the manufacturers to develop better engines and strategies for OBD. As an aid in the process models can be used. This thesis presents extensions of an existing diesel engine model in Matlab/Simulink to be able to simulate emissions during standardized european test cycles. Faults in the sensor and actuator signals are implemented into the model to find out if there is an increase or decrease in the emissions. This is used to create a fault tree where it can be seen why predefined emission thresholds are exceeded. The tree is an aid when developing OBD. The results from the simulations showed that almost no faults made the emissions cross the thresholds. The only interesting faults were faults in the ambient temperature sensor and the injection angle actuator. This means that the OBD-system only needs to monitor a few components which implies a smaller system and less work.

<p>Today's legislation on exhaust gas emissions for heavy duty diesel (HDD) vehicles is more stringent than ever and will be even more tough in the future. More over, in a few years HDD vehicles have to be equipped with OBD (On-Board Diagnostics). This place very high demands on the manufacturers to develop better engines and strategies for OBD. As an aid in the process models can be used. </p><p>This thesis presents extensions of an existing diesel engine model in Matlab/Simulink to be able to simulate emissions during standardized european test cycles. Faults in the sensor and actuator signals are implemented into the model to find out if there is an increase or decrease in the emissions. This is used to create a fault tree where it can be seen why predefined emission thresholds are exceeded. The tree is an aid when developing OBD. </p><p>The results from the simulations showed that almost no faults made the emissions cross the thresholds. The only interesting faults were faults in the ambient temperature sensor and the injection angle actuator. This means that the OBD-system only needs to monitor a few components which implies a smaller system and less work.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:48:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:58:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 09246.pdf: 5265828 bytes, checksum: 4d1524b4005b3c1696584a11c7c97252 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

When even seemingly benign and routine processes fail in healthcare, people sometimes die. The profound effect on the patient’s families and the healthcare staff involved is clear (Vincent and Coulter, 2002), while further consequences are felt by the institution involved, both financially and by damage to reputation. The trend in healthcare for learning through experience of adverse events is no longer a viable philosophy (Department of Health,Sir Ian Carruthers OBE and Pauline Philip, 2006). In order to make progress towards preventative learning, three Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) methods used in other industries were evaluated for use in the area of ward based healthcare. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) were compared to each other in terms of ease of use, information they provide and the manner in which it is presented. Their results were also compared to baseline data produced through empirical research. Oxygen Therapy was used in this research as an example of a common ward based therapy. The resulting analysis listed 186 hazards almost all of which could lead to death, especially if combined. FTA and FMEA provided better system coverage than HAZOP and identified more hazards than were contained in the initial hazard identification method common to both techniques. FMEA and HAZOP needed some modification before use, with HAZOP requiring the most extensive adjustment. FTA has a very useful graphical presentation and was the only method capable of displaying causal linkage, but required that hazards be translated into events for analysis. It was concluded that formal Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) was applicable to this area of healthcare and presented added value through a combination of detailed information on possible hazards and accurate risk assessment based on a combination of expert opinion and empirical data. This provides a mechanism for evidence based identification of hazard barriers and safeguards as well as a method for formal communication of results at any stage of an analysis. It may further provide a very valuable vehicle for documented learning through prospective analysis incorporating feedback from previous experience and adverse incidents. The clear definition of systems and processes that form part of these methods provides a valuable opportunity for learning and the enduring capture and dissemination of tacit knowledge that can be continually updated and used for the formulation of strategies for safety and quality improvement.