Expanded Failure Mode and Effects Analysis: Advanced Approach for Reliability Assessments

The qualitative methods for risk and reliability assessment have proved to be a useful analytical tool in support of decision-making processes. This paper shows the key aspects of a new approach developed in the failure mode and effects analysis method, in order to link the kindness of the qualitative methods and some of the more important strengths of the quantitative ones. This new approach of analysis was implemented in the ASeC computer code, by means of which it was carried out a detailed reliability analysis of a fire extinction system that includes, in contrast to the traditional technique, common cause failures analysis and functional dependences analysis. The results are compared with those, which have been obtained using the fault tree analysis, by means of the ARCON computer code. Finally, the relevance of the new approach in reliability-concerned decision-making processes, it is shown, through the results of the analysis by applying the expanded failure modes and effect analysis method.