NESC1020 BACFIRE.
BACFIRE, Minimal Cut Sets Common Cause Failure Fault Tree Analysis
NAME OR DESIGNATION OF PROGRAM, COMPUTER, DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM OR FUNCTION, METHOD OF SOLUTION, RESTRICTIONS ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM, TYPICAL RUNNING TIME, UNUSUAL FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM, RELATED AND AUXILIARY PROGRAMS, STATUS, REFERENCES, MACHINE REQUIREMENTS, LANGUAGE, OPERATING SYSTEM UNDER WHICH PROGRAM IS EXECUTED, OTHER PROGRAMMING OR OPERATING INFORMATION OR RESTRICTIONS, NAME AND ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHOR, MATERIAL, CATEGORIES
[ top ]
[ top ]
To submit a request, click below on the link of the version you wish to order.
Only liaison officers are authorised to submit online requests. Rules for requesters are
available here.
| Program name | Package id | Status | Status date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BACFIRE | NESC1020/01 | Tested | 21-JUL-1983 |
Machines used:
| Package ID | Orig. computer | Test computer |
|---|---|---|
| NESC1020/01 | IBM 3081 | IBM 3081 |
[ top ]
3. DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM OR FUNCTION
BACFIRE, designed to aid in common cause failure analysis, searches among the basic events of a minimal cut set of the system logic model for common potential causes of failure. The potential cause of failure is called a qualitative failure characteristics. The algorithm searches qualitative failure characteristics (that are part of the program input) of the basic events contained in a set to find those characteristics common to all basic events. This search is repeated for all cut sets input to the program. Common cause failure analysis is thereby performed without inclusion of secondary failure in the system logic model. By using BACFIRE, a common cause failure analysis can be added to an existing system safety and reliability analysis.
BACFIRE, designed to aid in common cause failure analysis, searches among the basic events of a minimal cut set of the system logic model for common potential causes of failure. The potential cause of failure is called a qualitative failure characteristics. The algorithm searches qualitative failure characteristics (that are part of the program input) of the basic events contained in a set to find those characteristics common to all basic events. This search is repeated for all cut sets input to the program. Common cause failure analysis is thereby performed without inclusion of secondary failure in the system logic model. By using BACFIRE, a common cause failure analysis can be added to an existing system safety and reliability analysis.
[ top ]
4. METHOD OF SOLUTION
BACFIRE searches the qualitative failure characteristics of the basic events contained in the fault tree minimal cut set to find those characteristics common to all basic events by either of two criteria. The first criterion can be met if all the basic events in a minimal cut set are associated by a condition which alone may increase the probability of multiple component malfunction. The second criterion is met if all the basic events in a minimal cut set are susceptible to the same secondary failure cause and are located in the same domain for that cause of secondary failure.
BACFIRE searches the qualitative failure characteristics of the basic events contained in the fault tree minimal cut set to find those characteristics common to all basic events by either of two criteria. The first criterion can be met if all the basic events in a minimal cut set are associated by a condition which alone may increase the probability of multiple component malfunction. The second criterion is met if all the basic events in a minimal cut set are susceptible to the same secondary failure cause and are located in the same domain for that cause of secondary failure.
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
10. REFERENCES
- G.R. Burdick, N.H. Marshall, J.R. Wilson:
COMCAN - A Computer Program for Common Cause Analysis
ANCR-1314, May 1976.
- W.E. Vesely, R.E. Narum:
PREP and KITT: Computer Codes for the Automatic Evaluation of a
Fault Tree
IN-1349, August 1970.
- J.B. Fussell, E.B. Henry, N.H. Marshall:
MCCUS: A Computer Program to Obtain Minimal sets from Fault Trees
ANCR-1156, August 1974.
- J.B. Fussell, D.M. Rasmuson, J.R. Wilson, G.R. Burdick,
J.C. Zipperer:
A Collection of Methods for Reliability and Safety Engineering
ANCR-1273, April 1976.
- G.R. Burdick, N.H. Marshall, J.R. Wilson:
COMCAN - A Computer Program for Common Cause Analysis
ANCR-1314, May 1976.
- W.E. Vesely, R.E. Narum:
PREP and KITT: Computer Codes for the Automatic Evaluation of a
Fault Tree
IN-1349, August 1970.
- J.B. Fussell, E.B. Henry, N.H. Marshall:
MCCUS: A Computer Program to Obtain Minimal sets from Fault Trees
ANCR-1156, August 1974.
- J.B. Fussell, D.M. Rasmuson, J.R. Wilson, G.R. Burdick,
J.C. Zipperer:
A Collection of Methods for Reliability and Safety Engineering
ANCR-1273, April 1976.
NESC1020/01, included references:
- C.L. Cate and J.B. Fussel:A Computer Program for Common Cause Failure Analysis
BACFIRE (February 1977).
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
[ top ]
NESC1020/01
| File name | File description | Records |
|---|---|---|
| NESC1020_01.003 | BACFIRE INFORMATION FILE | 33 |
| NESC1020_01.004 | BACFIRE SOURCE (FORTRAN-4) | 615 |
| NESC1020_01.005 | BACFIRE JCL FOR TEST CASE | 22 |
| NESC1020_01.006 | BACFIRE INPUT FOR TEST CASE | 95 |
| NESC1020_01.007 | BACFIRE OUTPUT OF TEST CASE | 209 |
Keywords: failures, fault tree analysis, reliability, system failure analysis.