Applying risk assessment technique to electromagnetic compatibility analysis in Chinese High Speed Railway

There are more and more electromagnetic compatibility problems contributing to safety related errors, malfunctions and other failures in Chinese High Speed Railway. However, the classical EMC test and theory does not take into account risk analysis of EMC especially in safety critical systems. In order to help engineers to solve the EMC problems systematically, a method with risk assessment and management thinking is used in this paper. First the study proposes an EMC Risk Analysis Model (EMCRAM) based on the Hierarchical Holographic Modeling (HHM) with four levels. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is introduced to calculate the risk of EMC faults when the risk value of the indices is obtained with the method of EMC measurement and experts´ knowledge and experience. To demonstrate the approach, it is validated by an application of railway signal system and the results show the EMC risk and vulnerability in the railway signal system.