Computer-implemented method and device for resolving closed loops in automatic fault tree analysis of a multi-component system

A computer-implemented method for resolving closed loops in automatic fault tree analysis of a multi-component system, the method comprising:

• modeling the multi-component system using a fault tree, the fault tree comprising elements associated with components of the multi-component system and interconnections between the elements associated with functional dependencies between the components,
• back-tracing failure propagation paths from an output element of the fault tree via the interconnections towards one or more input elements of the fault tree;
• checking, for all failure propagation paths, if the respective failure propagation path contains a closed loop by identifying a downstream element of the respective failure propagation path having a dependency of its output value on an output value of an upstream element of the failure propagation path;
• setting the input value corresponding to a loop interconnection of each such downstream element to Boolean TRUE;
• replacing any Boolean AND-gate having, independently of the specific values of the input elements, Boolean TRUE as output value with a Boolean OR-gate between the respective downstream element and the respective upstream element;
• cutting off any Boolean TRUE input to any Boolean AND-gate remaining between the respective downstream element and the respective upstream element and
• setting the input value of each respective downstream element corresponding to the loop interconnection to Boolean FALSE.