A Failure Analysis Method Based on the Combination of FTA and GGRA: A Case Study on an Engine

Abstract

As product structure becomes more and more complex, the fault mode presents a diversified trend, and it is more difficult to determine the causes of system failure for a complex product. The main objective of this study is to provide an effective failure analysis method based on the combination of fault trees analysis (FTA) and generalized grey relation analysis (GGRA) for complex product. In this method, the product system failure is defined and the fault tree is constructed by FTA methodology firstly; and then GGRA is employed to identify the correlations between each fault mode and the system failure; finally, the main causes of system failure are identified and the corresponding measures can be made. A case study of a WD615 Steyr engine is conducted throughout the text to verify the validity of this method. The present study would help facilitate the failure and reliability analysis for complex product and benefit designers for the product improvement.