Fault Hazard Analysis FHA

The fault hazard analysis (FHA)—also referred to as the functional hazard analysis—method follows an inductive reasoning approach to problem solving in that the analysis concentrates primarily on the specific and moves toward the general (TAI 1989). The FHA is an expansion of the FMEA (Stephenson 1991). As demonstrated in the previous chapter, the FMEA is concerned with the critical examination and documentation of the possible ways in which a system component, circuit, or piece of hardware may fail and the effect of that failure on the performance of that element. The FHA takes this evaluation a step further by determining the effect of such failures on the system, the subsystem, or personnel. In fact, when a FMEA has already been completed for a given system and information on the adverse safety effect of component or human failures is desired for that system, the safety engineer can often utilize the data from the FMEA as an input to the FHA. 

Figure 11.1 Sample system functional/fault hazard analysis (FHA) worksheet.

Challenger accident, the solid-rocket boosters could be considered a subsystem. When the hot gases broke through the O-ring, a component of the subsystem, a total system breakdown began as a cascade effect that ultimately destroyed the orbiter. This analysis should be started no later than the definition phase in the system life cycle and continue until the beginning of the system production phase. Analysis techniques include Fault Hazard Analysis (FHA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), discussed in more detail in the next section (Roland and Moriarty, 1990). 

Fault hazard analysis (FHA) is an analysis technique for identifying hazards arising from component failure modes. It is accomplished by examining the potential failure modes of subsystems, assemblies, or components, and determining which failure modes can form undesired states that could result in a mishap. Note that FHA deals with faults even though it looks at failure modes and is similar to an FMEA in structure. The technique was developed to allow the analyst to stop the analysis at a point where it becomes clear that a failure mode did not contribute to a hazard, whereas the FMEA requires complete evaluation of all failure modes. 

Software Fault Hazard Analysis Similar in concept and structure to the system hazard analysis (SHA), which is conducted on system hardware, the software fault hazard analysis will analyze and evaluate a computer software program to identify critical areas in the programming that may contribute to or directly cause a hazard risk. Such risks may be due to an undetected hardware failure or incorrect inputs into the operation of the system software. The software FHA will also attempt to uncover any probable errors that can possible develop in the software after system activation. 

Fault (or Functional) Hazard Analysis (FHA) Management Oversight and Risk Tree (MORT) Energy Trace and Barrier Analysis (ETBA) Sneak Circuit Analysis (SCA)... 

This approach is based on a safety analysis, often used for safety critical systems. The safety analysis performed at each stage of the system development is intended to identify all possible hazards with their relevant causes. Traditional safety analysis methods include, e.g. Functional Hazard Analysis (FHA) [1], Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) [2] and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). FMEA is a bottom-up method since it starts with the failure of a component or subsystem and then looks at its effect on the overall system. First, it lists all the components comprising a system and their associated failure modes. Then, the effects on other components or subsystems are evaluated and listed along with the consequence on the system for each component s failure modes. FTA, in particular, is a deductive method to analyze system design and robustness. Within this approach we can determine how a system failure can occur. It also allows us to propose countermeasures with a higher coverage or having wider dimension. 

One important point is doing the Software Safety Analysis as part of the overall System Safety Assessment, and not as an independent task. During the FHA critical system functions and system hazards are identified and subsequently broken down to the hardware and software level. Based on the software architecture, potential software faults which might contribute to the system hazards are detected during the Software Safety Analysis. The results of the Software Safety Analysis must be considered at the system level as well. Thus, the Software Safety Analysis is an integrated element of the System Safety Assessment. 

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