Approximate fault-tree analysis without cut sets

It is shown that a rather efficient approximate fault tree analysis is possible on the basis of the Shannon decomposition. The main advantages are: (1) no preprocessing is necessary to determine all the mincuts; (2) the maximum error can be prespecified; and (3) noncoherent systems and systems with dependent component states can be treated. The main disadvantage is the fact that the cutting off of certain subtrees of the decomposition tree (for upper bound results) may need some trial and error test calculations.<
>