Systems and Network Analysis

Students are familiarised with concepts of systems and network analysis. They learn how to model and analyse a real-world system or network, such as an infrastructure system, in order for assessing its performance and reliability. A general understanding will be established on how systems and networks behave under a wide range of demands from normal to exceptional, and on how they respond to critical excitations such as natural and man made hazards. This includes, in particular, the development of understanding on failure propagation in systems and networks, and dealing with dependencies and common cause of failure. Students will develop skills for chosing the most appropriate approach depending on the problem and for efficient and effective decisionmaking. Both intuitive engineering approximations and most advanced numerical simulation approaches will be discussed. Emphasis is put on the interpretation of results in the context of the approach applied in order to convey a sense for a comprehensive understanding of the analysis. After successful completion of the module students will be able to model and analyse real-size systems and networks.

 

• fundamentals of risk and reliability analysis of systems

• qualitative analysis tools for hazard identification (HAZID) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)

• quantitative tools for probabilistic risk assessment: fault tree analysis (FTA) and event tree analysis

• graph representations, search in gaphs and trees

• networks and cuts

• flows in graphs

• survival signature approach