2.3 Fault Tree Modeling
The FT technique was first introduced by Watson at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s for facilitating an analysis of a launch control system of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile [2]. FT has evolved to be one of the most widely used techniques for system reliability and safety modeling and analysis.
FT is an analytical technique starting with identifying an undesired system event (typically the system considered being in a particular failure mode). Then the system is analyzed to identify all possible combinations of basic component failure events that can cause occurrence of the predefined undesired system event [3]. An FT can graphically represent the logical relationship between the undesired system event and the basic component failure events. It provides a logical framework for comprehending the possible ways in which a system can fail in a certain mode [4].
As a deductive technique, an FT analysis starts with a system failure scenario...