Calculating the failure intensity of a non-coherent fault tree using the BDD technique.

This paper considers a technique for calculating the unconditional failure intensity of any given non-coherent fault tree. Conventional Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) techniques involve the evaluation of lengthy series expansions and approximations are unavoidable even for moderate sized fault trees. The Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) technique overcomes some of the shortfalls of conventional FTA techniques enabling efficient and exact quantitative analysis of both coherent and non-coherent fault trees.