Failure-Frequency Evaluation of Complex Systems Using Cut-Set Approach

The paper develops a new method for evaluating failure frequency of complex systems with 2-state components, from corresponding cut sets. The method is derived by direct application of cut-set techniques to the failure frequency formula obtained by Buzacott and Singh. The method is suitable for computer implementation and can be used for cut-set diagrams with overlapping and non minimal cut-sets. Two examples are presented and the results are compared with those obtained by a common approximate approach.