An Efficient Simple Algorithm for Fault Tree Automatic Synthesis from the Reliability Graph

A simple efficient algorithm for the automatic construction of fault trees concerning complex 2-state, non series-parallel systems is given. The approach begins with the probabilistic graph of the system and results in a suitable form of fault tree that can be used in any available method of numerical evaluation. The technique is simple enough to treat operator failures or environmental effects if they are properly included in the reliability graph. Furthermore it is possible to evaluate the effects of additional redundancies, so making possible an optimization of system reliability.