Increasing the reliability of risk assessment for systems endangered by electrostatic discharges

Risk assessment for systems endangered by electrostatic discharges is especially important in industrial electrostatics. Different methods are widely used for the approximation of the risk. One of them is the fuzzy logic based fault tree analysis. The reliability of the calculated probability of the top event in the fault tree (in our case fire or explosion) strongly depends on the accuracy of the probability values connected to the basic events. This paper deals with that problem, how the reliability of risk assessment can be increased by the application of a complex model for the determination of initial probabilities for the basic events. A case study is analysed to overview reliability problems for risk assessment in such an industrial process where risk of fire or explosion is present due to the electrostatic discharges.