Reliability modeling of digital RPS with consideration of undetected software faults

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khalaquzzaman, M.; Lee, Seung Jun; Jung, Won Dea [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Man Cheol [Chung Ang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

This paper provides overview of different software reliability methodologies and proposes a technic for estimating the reliability of RPS with consideration of undetected software faults. Software reliability analysis of safety critical software has been challenging despite spending a huge effort for developing large number of software reliability models, and no consensus yet to attain on an appropriate modeling methodology. However, it is realized that the combined application of BBN based SDLC fault prediction method and random black-box testing of software would provide better ground for reliability estimation of safety critical software. Digitalizing the reactor protection system of nuclear power plant has been initiated several decades ago and now full digitalization has been adopted in the new generation of NPPs around the world because digital I and C systems have many better technical features like easier configurability and maintainability over analog I and C systems. Digital I and C systems are also drift-free and incorporation of new features is much easier. Rules and regulation for safe operation of NPPs are established and has been being practiced by the operators as well as regulators of NPPs to ensure safety. The failure mechanism of hardware and analog systems well understood and the risk analysis methods for these components and systems are well established. However, digitalization of I and C system in NPP introduces some crisis and uncertainty in reliability analysis methods of the digital systems/components because software failure mechanisms are still unclear.

Possibilities and limitations of applying software reliability growth models to safety-critical software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol; Jang, Seung Cheol; Ha, Jae Joo

2007-01-01

It is generally known that software reliability growth models such as the Jelinski-Moranda model and the Goel-Okumoto's Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP) model cannot be applied to safety-critical software due to a lack of software failure data. In this paper, by applying two of the most widely known software reliability growth models to sample software failure data, we demonstrate the possibility of using the software reliability growth models to prove the high reliability of safety-critical software. The high sensitivity of a piece of software's reliability to software failure data, as well as a lack of sufficient software failure data, is also identified as a possible limitation when applying the software reliability growth models to safety-critical software

Some remarks on software reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez Hernando, J.; Sanchez Izquierdo, J.

1978-01-01

Trend in modern NPPCI is toward a broad use of programmable elements. Some aspects concerning present status of programmable digital systems reliability are reported. Basic differences between software and hardware concept require a specific approach in all the reliability topics concerning software systems. The software reliability theory was initialy developed upon hardware models analogies. At present this approach is changing and specific models are being developed. The growing use of programmable systems necessitates emphasizing the importance of more adequate regulatory requirements to include this technology in NPPCI. (author)

A Method of Nuclear Software Reliability Estimation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Gee Yong; Eom, Heung Seop; Cheon, Se Woo; Jang, Seung Cheol

2011-01-01

A method on estimating software reliability for nuclear safety software is proposed. This method is based on the software reliability growth model (SRGM) where the behavior of software failure is assumed to follow the non-homogeneous Poisson process. Several modeling schemes are presented in order to estimate and predict more precisely the number of software defects based on a few of software failure data. The Bayesian statistical inference is employed to estimate the model parameters by incorporating the software test cases into the model. It is identified that this method is capable of accurately estimating the remaining number of software defects which are on-demand type directly affecting safety trip functions. The software reliability can be estimated from a model equation and one method of obtaining the software reliability is proposed

Theory and state-of-the-art technology of software reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzudo, Tomoaki; Watanabe, Norio

1999-11-01

Since FY 1997 , the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute has been conducting a project , Study on Reliability of Digital I and C Systems. As part of the project , the methodologies and tools to improve software reliability were reviewed in order to examine the theory and the state-of-the-art technology in this field. It is surmised, as results from the review, that computerized software design and implementation tool (CASE tool), algebraic analysis to ensure the consistency between software requirement framework and its detailed design specification, and efficient test method using the internal information of the software (white-box test) at the validation phase just before the completion of the development will play a key role to enhance software reliability in the future. (author)

A technical survey on issues of the quantitative evaluation of software reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, J. K; Sung, T. Y.; Eom, H. S.; Jeong, H. S.; Park, J. H.; Kang, H. G.; Lee, K. Y.; Park, J. K.

2000-04-01

To develop the methodology for evaluating the software reliability included in digital instrumentation and control system (I and C), many kinds of methodologies/techniques that have been proposed from the software reliability engineering fuel are analyzed to identify the strong and week points of them. According to analysis results, methodologies/techniques that can be directly applied for the evaluation of the software reliability are not exist. Thus additional researches to combine the most appropriate methodologies/techniques from existing ones would be needed to evaluate the software reliability. (author)

The problem of software reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballard, G.M.

1989-01-01

The state of the art in safety and reliability assessment of the software of industrial computer systems is reviewed and likely progress over the next few years is identified and compared with the perceived needs of the user. Some of the current projects contributing to the development of new techniques for assessing software reliability are described. One is the software test and evaluation method which looked at the faults within and between two manufacturers specifications, faults in the codes and inconsistencies between the codes and specifications. The results are given. (author)

Prediction of software operational reliability using testing environment factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Hoan Sung; Seong, Poong Hyun

1995-01-01

A number of software reliability models have been developed to estimate and to predict software reliability. However, there are no established standard models to quantify software reliability. Most models estimate the quality of software in reliability figures such as remaining faults, failure rate, or mean time to next failure at the testing phase, and they consider them ultimate indicators of software reliability. Experience shows that there is a large gap between predicted reliability during development and reliability measured during operation, which means that predicted reliability, or so-called test reliability, is not operational reliability. Customers prefer operational reliability to test reliability. In this study, we propose a method that predicts operational reliability rather than test reliability by introducing the testing environment factor that quantifies the changes in environments

Software reliability studies

Science.gov (United States)

Hoppa, Mary Ann; Wilson, Larry W.

1994-01-01

There are many software reliability models which try to predict future performance of software based on data generated by the debugging process. Our research has shown that by improving the quality of the data one can greatly improve the predictions. We are working on methodologies which control some of the randomness inherent in the standard data generation processes in order to improve the accuracy of predictions. Our contribution is twofold in that we describe an experimental methodology using a data structure called the debugging graph and apply this methodology to assess the robustness of existing models. The debugging graph is used to analyze the effects of various fault recovery orders on the predictive accuracy of several well-known software reliability algorithms. We found that, along a particular debugging path in the graph, the predictive performance of different models can vary greatly. Similarly, just because a model 'fits' a given path's data well does not guarantee that the model would perform well on a different path. Further we observed bug interactions and noted their potential effects on the predictive process. We saw that not only do different faults fail at different rates, but that those rates can be affected by the particular debugging stage at which the rates are evaluated. Based on our experiment, we conjecture that the accuracy of a reliability prediction is affected by the fault recovery order as well as by fault interaction.

Key attributes of the SAPHIRE risk and reliability analysis software for risk-informed probabilistic applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, Curtis; Knudsen, James; Kvarfordt, Kellie; Wood, Ted

2008-01-01

The Idaho National Laboratory is a primary developer of probabilistic risk and reliability analysis (PRRA) tools, dating back over 35 years. Evolving from mainframe-based software, the current state-of-the-practice has led to the creation of the SAPHIRE software. Currently, agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Aeronautics and Aerospace Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense use version 7 of the SAPHIRE software for many of their risk-informed activities. In order to better understand and appreciate the power of software as part of risk-informed applications, we need to recall that our current analysis methods and solution methods have built upon pioneering work done 30-40 years ago. We contrast this work with the current capabilities in the SAPHIRE analysis package. As part of this discussion, we provide information for both the typical features and special analysis capabilities, which are available. We also present the application and results typically found with state-of-the-practice PRRA models. By providing both a high-level and detailed look at the SAPHIRE software, we give a snapshot in time for the current use of software tools in a risk-informed decision arena

Software reliability prediction using SPN | Abbasabadee | Journal of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Software reliability prediction using SPN. ... In this research for computation of software reliability, component reliability model based on SPN would be proposed. An isomorphic markov ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Reliability and accuracy analysis of a new semiautomatic radiographic measurement software in adult scoliosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Aubin, Carl-Eric; Bellefleur, Christian; Joncas, Julie; de Lanauze, Dominic; Kadoury, Samuel; Blanke, Kathy; Parent, Stefan; Labelle, Hubert

2011-05-20

Radiographic software measurement analysis in adult scoliosis. To assess the accuracy as well as the intra- and interobserver reliability of measuring different indices on preoperative adult scoliosis radiographs using a novel measurement software that includes a calibration procedure and semiautomatic features to facilitate the measurement process. Scoliosis requires a careful radiographic evaluation to assess the deformity. Manual and computer radiographic process measures have been studied extensively to determine the reliability and reproducibility in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Most studies rely on comparing given measurements, which are repeated by the same user or by an expert user. A given measure with a small intra- or interobserver error might be deemed as good repeatability, but all measurements might not be truly accurate because the ground-truth value is often unknown. Thorough accuracy assessment of radiographic measures is necessary to assess scoliotic deformities, compare these measures at different stages or to permit valid multicenter studies. Thirty-four sets of adult scoliosis digital radiographs were measured two times by three independent observers using a novel radiographic measurement software that includes semiautomatic features to facilitate the measurement process. Twenty different measures taken from the Spinal Deformity Study Group radiographic measurement manual were performed on the coronal and sagittal images. Intra- and intermeasurer reliability for each measure was assessed. The accuracy of the measurement software was also assessed using a physical spine model in six different scoliotic configurations as a true reference. The majority of the measures demonstrated good to excellent intra- and intermeasurer reliability, except for sacral obliquity. The standard variation of all the measures was very small: ≤ 4.2° for Cobb angles, ≤ 4.2° for the kyphosis, ≤ 5.7° for the lordosis, ≤ 3.9° for the pelvic angles, and �

Software engineering practices for control system reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

S. K. Schaffner; K. S White

1999-01-01

This paper will discuss software engineering practices used to improve Control System reliability. The authors begin with a brief discussion of the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM) which is a framework for evaluating and improving key practices used to enhance software development and maintenance capabilities. The software engineering processes developed and used by the Controls Group at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), using the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) for accelerator control, are described. Examples are given of how their procedures have been used to minimized control system downtime and improve reliability. While their examples are primarily drawn from their experience with EPICS, these practices are equally applicable to any control system. Specific issues addressed include resource allocation, developing reliable software lifecycle processes and risk management

Safety and reliability of automatization software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kapp, K; Daum, R [Karlsruhe Univ. (TH) (Germany, F.R.). Lehrstuhl fuer Angewandte Informatik, Transport- und Verkehrssysteme

1979-02-01

Automated technical systems have to meet very high requirements concerning safety, security and reliability. Today, modern computers, especially microcomputers, are used as integral parts of those systems. In consequence computer programs must work in a safe and reliable mannter. Methods are discussed which allow to construct safe and reliable software for automatic systems such as reactor protection systems and to prove that the safety requirements are met. As a result it is shown that only the method of total software diversification can satisfy all safety requirements at tolerable cost. In order to achieve a high degree of reliability, structured and modular programming in context with high level programming languages are recommended.

Reliable software for unreliable hardware a cross layer perspective

CERN Document Server

Rehman, Semeen; Henkel, Jörg

2016-01-01

This book describes novel software concepts to increase reliability under user-defined constraints. The authors’ approach bridges, for the first time, the reliability gap between hardware and software. Readers will learn how to achieve increased soft error resilience on unreliable hardware, while exploiting the inherent error masking characteristics and error (stemming from soft errors, aging, and process variations) mitigations potential at different software layers. · Provides a comprehensive overview of reliability modeling and optimization techniques at different hardware and software levels; · Describes novel optimization techniques for software cross-layer reliability, targeting unreliable hardware.

Prediction of safety critical software operational reliability from test reliability using testing environment factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Hoan Sung; Seong, Poong Hyun

1999-01-01

It has been a critical issue to predict the safety critical software reliability in nuclear engineering area. For many years, many researches have focused on the quantification of software reliability and there have been many models developed to quantify software reliability. Most software reliability models estimate the reliability with the failure data collected during the test assuming that the test environments well represent the operation profile. User's interest is however on the operational reliability rather than on the test reliability. The experiences show that the operational reliability is higher than the test reliability. With the assumption that the difference in reliability results from the change of environment, from testing to operation, testing environment factors comprising the aging factor and the coverage factor are developed in this paper and used to predict the ultimate operational reliability with the failure data in testing phase. It is by incorporating test environments applied beyond the operational profile into testing environment factors. The application results show that the proposed method can estimate the operational reliability accurately. (Author). 14 refs., 1 tab., 1 fig

Application of Artificial Intelligence technology to the analysis and synthesis of reliable software systems

Science.gov (United States)

Wild, Christian; Eckhardt, Dave

1987-01-01

The development of a methodology for the production of highly reliable software is one of the greatest challenges facing the computer industry. Meeting this challenge will undoubtably involve the integration of many technologies. This paper describes the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies in the automated analysis of the formal algebraic specifications of abstract data types. These technologies include symbolic execution of specifications using techniques of automated deduction and machine learning through the use of examples. On-going research into the role of knowledge representation and problem solving in the process of developing software is also discussed.

Quantitative reliability assessment for safety critical system software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Dae Won; Kwon, Soon Man

2005-01-01

An essential issue in the replacement of the old analogue I and C to computer-based digital systems in nuclear power plants is the quantitative software reliability assessment. Software reliability models have been successfully applied to many industrial applications, but have the unfortunate drawback of requiring data from which one can formulate a model. Software which is developed for safety critical applications is frequently unable to produce such data for at least two reasons. First, the software is frequently one-of-a-kind, and second, it rarely fails. Safety critical software is normally expected to pass every unit test producing precious little failure data. The basic premise of the rare events approach is that well-tested software does not fail under normal routine and input signals, which means that failures must be triggered by unusual input data and computer states. The failure data found under the reasonable testing cases and testing time for these conditions should be considered for the quantitative reliability assessment. We will present the quantitative reliability assessment methodology of safety critical software for rare failure cases in this paper

A reliability evaluation method for NPP safety DCS application software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Yunjian; Zhang Lei; Liu Yuan

2014-01-01

In the field of nuclear power plant (NPP) digital i and c application, reliability evaluation for safety DCS application software is a key obstacle to be removed. In order to quantitatively evaluate reliability of NPP safety DCS application software, this paper propose a reliability evaluating method based on software development life cycle every stage's v and v defects density characteristics, by which the operating reliability level of the software can be predicted before its delivery, and helps to improve the reliability of NPP safety important software. (authors)

Study of evaluation techniques of software safety and reliability in nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Youn, Cheong; Baek, Y. W.; Kim, H. C.; Park, N. J.; Shin, C. Y. [Chungnam National Univ., Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1999-04-15

Software system development process and software quality assurance activities are examined in this study. Especially software safety and reliability requirements in nuclear power plant are investigated. For this purpose methodologies and tools which can be applied to software analysis, design, implementation, testing, maintenance step are evaluated. Necessary tasks for each step are investigated. Duty, input, and detailed activity for each task are defined to establish development process of high quality software system. This means applying basic concepts of software engineering and principles of system development. This study establish a guideline that can assure software safety and reliability requirements in digitalized nuclear plant systems and can be used as a guidebook of software development process to assure software quality many software development organization.

Reliability assessment using Bayesian networks. Case study on quantative reliability estimation of a software-based motor protection relay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helminen, A.; Pulkkinen, U.

2003-06-01

In this report a quantitative reliability assessment of motor protection relay SPAM 150 C has been carried out. The assessment focuses to the methodological analysis of the quantitative reliability assessment using the software-based motor protection relay as a case study. The assessment method is based on Bayesian networks and tries to take the full advantage of the previous work done in a project called Programmable Automation System Safety Integrity assessment (PASSI). From the results and experiences achieved during the work it is justified to claim that the assessment method presented in the work enables a flexible use of qualitative and quantitative elements of reliability related evidence in a single reliability assessment. At the same time the assessment method is a concurrent way of reasoning one's beliefs and references about the reliability of the system. Full advantage of the assessment method is taken when using the method as a way to cultivate the information related to the reliability of software-based systems. The method can also be used as a communicational instrument in a licensing process of software-based systems. (orig.)

Development of the software for the component reliability database system of Korean nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han, Sang Hoon; Kim, Seung Hwan; Choi, Sun Young [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejeon (Korea)

2002-03-01

A study was performed to develop the system for the component reliability database which consists of database system to store the reliability data and softwares to analyze the reliability data.This system is a part of KIND (Korea Information System for Nuclear Reliability Database).The MS-SQL database is used to stores the component population data, component maintenance history, and the results of reliability analysis. Two softwares were developed for the component reliability system. One is the KIND-InfoView for the data storing, retrieving and searching. The other is the KIND-CompRel for the statistical analysis of component reliability. 4 refs., 13 figs., 7 tabs. (Author)

Prediction of software operational reliability using testing environment factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Hoan Sung; Seong, Poong Hyun

1995-01-01

For many years, many researches have focused on the quantification of software reliability and there are many models developed to quantify software reliability. Most software reliability models estimate the reliability with the failure data collected during the test assuming that the test environments well represent the operation profile. The experiences show that the operational reliability is higher than the test reliability User's interest is on the operational reliability rather than on the test reliability, however. With the assumption that the difference in reliability results from the change of environment, testing environment factors comprising the aging factor and the coverage factor are defined in this study to predict the ultimate operational reliability with the failure data. It is by incorporating test environments applied beyond the operational profile into testing environment factors. The application results are close to the actual data

An architectural model for software reliability quantification: sources of data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smidts, C.; Sova, D.

1999-01-01

Software reliability assessment models in use today treat software as a monolithic block. An aversion towards 'atomic' models seems to exist. These models appear to add complexity to the modeling, to the data collection and seem intrinsically difficult to generalize. In 1997, we introduced an architecturally based software reliability model called FASRE. The model is based on an architecture derived from the requirements which captures both functional and nonfunctional requirements and on a generic classification of functions, attributes and failure modes. The model focuses on evaluation of failure mode probabilities and uses a Bayesian quantification framework. Failure mode probabilities of functions and attributes are propagated to the system level using fault trees. It can incorporate any type of prior information such as results of developers' testing, historical information on a specific functionality and its attributes, and, is ideally suited for reusable software. By building an architecture and deriving its potential failure modes, the model forces early appraisal and understanding of the weaknesses of the software, allows reliability analysis of the structure of the system, provides assessments at a functional level as well as at a systems' level. In order to quantify the probability of failure (or the probability of success) of a specific element of our architecture, data are needed. The term element of the architecture is used here in its broadest sense to mean a single failure mode or a higher level of abstraction such as a function. The paper surveys the potential sources of software reliability data available during software development. Next the mechanisms for incorporating these sources of relevant data to the FASRE model are identified

Towards early software reliability prediction for computer forensic tools (case study).

Science.gov (United States)

Abu Talib, Manar

2016-01-01

Versatility, flexibility and robustness are essential requirements for software forensic tools. Researchers and practitioners need to put more effort into assessing this type of tool. A Markov model is a robust means for analyzing and anticipating the functioning of an advanced component based system. It is used, for instance, to analyze the reliability of the state machines of real time reactive systems. This research extends the architecture-based software reliability prediction model for computer forensic tools, which is based on Markov chains and COSMIC-FFP. Basically, every part of the computer forensic tool is linked to a discrete time Markov chain. If this can be done, then a probabilistic analysis by Markov chains can be performed to analyze the reliability of the components and of the whole tool. The purposes of the proposed reliability assessment method are to evaluate the tool's reliability in the early phases of its development, to improve the reliability assessment process for large computer forensic tools over time, and to compare alternative tool designs. The reliability analysis can assist designers in choosing the most reliable topology for the components, which can maximize the reliability of the tool and meet the expected reliability level specified by the end-user. The approach of assessing component-based tool reliability in the COSMIC-FFP context is illustrated with the Forensic Toolkit Imager case study.

Reliability improvement of multiversion software by exchanging modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shima, Kazuyuki; Matsumoto, Ken-ichi; Torii, Koji

1996-01-01

In this paper, we proposes a method to improve reliability of multiversion software. In CER proposed in, checkpoints are put in versions of program and errors of versions are detected and recovered at the checkpoints. It prevent versions from failing and improve the reliability of multiversion software. But it is point out that CER decreases the reliability of the multiversion software if the detection and recovery of errors are assumed to be able to fail. In the method proposed in this paper, versions of program are developed following the same module specifications. When failures of versions of program are detected, faulty modules are identified and replaced them to other modules. It create versions without faulty modules and improve the reliability of multiversion software. The failure probability of multiversion software is estimated to become about a hundredth of the failure probability by the proposed method where the failure probability of each version is 0.000698, the number of versions is 5 and the number of modules is 20. (author)

A study of software reliability growth from the perspective of learning effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiu, K.-C.; Huang, Y.-S.; Lee, T.-Z.

2008-01-01

For the last three decades, reliability growth has been studied to predict software reliability in the testing/debugging phase. Most of the models developed were based on the non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), and S-shaped type or exponential-shaped type of behavior is usually assumed. Unfortunately, such models may be suitable only for particular software failure data, thus narrowing the scope of applications. Therefore, from the perspective of learning effects that can influence the process of software reliability growth, we considered that efficiency in testing/debugging concerned not only the ability of the testing staff but also the learning effect that comes from inspecting the testing/debugging codes. The proposed approach can reasonably describe the S-shaped and exponential-shaped types of behaviors simultaneously, and the results in the experiment show good fit. A comparative analysis to evaluate the effectiveness for the proposed model and other software failure models was also performed. Finally, an optimal software release policy is suggested

A hybrid approach to quantify software reliability in nuclear safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arun Babu, P.; Senthil Kumar, C.; Murali, N.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► A novel method to quantify software reliability using software verification and mutation testing in nuclear safety systems. ► Contributing factors that influence software reliability estimate. ► Approach to help regulators verify the reliability of safety critical software system during software licensing process. -- Abstract: Technological advancements have led to the use of computer based systems in safety critical applications. As computer based systems are being introduced in nuclear power plants, effective and efficient methods are needed to ensure dependability and compliance to high reliability requirements of systems important to safety. Even after several years of research, quantification of software reliability remains controversial and unresolved issue. Also, existing approaches have assumptions and limitations, which are not acceptable for safety applications. This paper proposes a theoretical approach combining software verification and mutation testing to quantify the software reliability in nuclear safety systems. The theoretical results obtained suggest that the software reliability depends on three factors: the test adequacy, the amount of software verification carried out and the reusability of verified code in the software. The proposed approach may help regulators in licensing computer based safety systems in nuclear reactors.

Review of Quantitative Software Reliability Methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chu, T.L.; Yue, M.; Martinez-Guridi, M.; Lehner, J.

2010-09-17

The current U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing process for digital systems rests on deterministic engineering criteria. In its 1995 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) policy statement, the Commission encouraged the use of PRA technology in all regulatory matters to the extent supported by the state-of-the-art in PRA methods and data. Although many activities have been completed in the area of risk-informed regulation, the risk-informed analysis process for digital systems has not yet been satisfactorily developed. Since digital instrumentation and control (I&C) systems are expected to play an increasingly important role in nuclear power plant (NPP) safety, the NRC established a digital system research plan that defines a coherent set of research programs to support its regulatory needs. One of the research programs included in the NRC's digital system research plan addresses risk assessment methods and data for digital systems. Digital I&C systems have some unique characteristics, such as using software, and may have different failure causes and/or modes than analog I&C systems; hence, their incorporation into NPP PRAs entails special challenges. The objective of the NRC's digital system risk research is to identify and develop methods, analytical tools, and regulatory guidance for (1) including models of digital systems into NPP PRAs, and (2) using information on the risks of digital systems to support the NRC's risk-informed licensing and oversight activities. For several years, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has worked on NRC projects to investigate methods and tools for the probabilistic modeling of digital systems, as documented mainly in NUREG/CR-6962 and NUREG/CR-6997. However, the scope of this research principally focused on hardware failures, with limited reviews of software failure experience and software reliability methods. NRC also sponsored research at the Ohio State University investigating the modeling of

Software safety analysis techniques for developing safety critical software in the digital protection system of the LMR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jang Soo; Cheon, Se Woo; Kim, Chang Hoi; Sim, Yun Sub

2001-02-01

This report has described the software safety analysis techniques and the engineering guidelines for developing safety critical software to identify the state of the art in this field and to give the software safety engineer a trail map between the code and standards layer and the design methodology and documents layer. We have surveyed the management aspects of software safety activities during the software lifecycle in order to improve the safety. After identifying the conventional safety analysis techniques for systems, we have surveyed in details the software safety analysis techniques, software FMEA(Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), software HAZOP(Hazard and Operability Analysis), and software FTA(Fault Tree Analysis). We have also surveyed the state of the art in the software reliability assessment techniques. The most important results from the reliability techniques are not the specific probability numbers generated, but the insights into the risk importance of software features. To defend against potential common-mode failures, high quality, defense-in-depth, and diversity are considered to be key elements in digital I and C system design. To minimize the possibility of CMFs and thus increase the plant reliability, we have provided D-in-D and D analysis guidelines.

Software safety analysis techniques for developing safety critical software in the digital protection system of the LMR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jang Soo; Cheon, Se Woo; Kim, Chang Hoi; Sim, Yun Sub

2001-02-01

This report has described the software safety analysis techniques and the engineering guidelines for developing safety critical software to identify the state of the art in this field and to give the software safety engineer a trail map between the code and standards layer and the design methodology and documents layer. We have surveyed the management aspects of software safety activities during the software lifecycle in order to improve the safety. After identifying the conventional safety analysis techniques for systems, we have surveyed in details the software safety analysis techniques, software FMEA(Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), software HAZOP(Hazard and Operability Analysis), and software FTA(Fault Tree Analysis). We have also surveyed the state of the art in the software reliability assessment techniques. The most important results from the reliability techniques are not the specific probability numbers generated, but the insights into the risk importance of software features. To defend against potential common-mode failures, high quality, defense-in-depth, and diversity are considered to be key elements in digital I and C system design. To minimize the possibility of CMFs and thus increase the plant reliability, we have provided D-in-D and D analysis guidelines

Review of Software Reliability Assessment Methodologies for Digital I and C Software of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Jae Hyun; Lee, Seung Jun; Jung, Won Dea [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-08-15

Digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems are increasingly being applied to current nuclear power plants (NPPs) due to its advantages; zero drift, advanced data calculation capacity, and design flexibility. Accordingly, safety issues of software that is main part of the digital I and C system have been raised. As with hardware components, the software failure in NPPs could lead to a large disaster, therefore failure rate test and reliability assessment of software should be properly performed, and after that adopted in NPPs. However, the reliability assessment of the software is quite different with that of hardware, owing to the nature difference between software and hardware. The one of the most different thing is that the software failures arising from design faults as 'error crystal', whereas the hardware failures are caused by deficiencies in design, production, and maintenance. For this reason, software reliability assessment has been focused on the optimal release time considering the economy. However, the safety goal and public acceptance of the NPPs is so distinctive with other industries that the software in NPPs is dependent on reliability quantitative value rather than economy. The safety goal of NPPs compared to other industries is exceptionally high, so conventional methodologies on software reliability assessment already used in other industries could not adjust to safety goal of NPPs. Thus, the new reliability assessment methodology of the software of digital I and C on NPPs need to be developed. In this paper, existing software reliability assessment methodologies are reviewed to obtain the pros and cons of them, and then to assess the usefulness of each method to software of NPPs.

Review of Software Reliability Assessment Methodologies for Digital I and C Software of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Jae Hyun; Lee, Seung Jun; Jung, Won Dea

2014-01-01

Digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems are increasingly being applied to current nuclear power plants (NPPs) due to its advantages; zero drift, advanced data calculation capacity, and design flexibility. Accordingly, safety issues of software that is main part of the digital I and C system have been raised. As with hardware components, the software failure in NPPs could lead to a large disaster, therefore failure rate test and reliability assessment of software should be properly performed, and after that adopted in NPPs. However, the reliability assessment of the software is quite different with that of hardware, owing to the nature difference between software and hardware. The one of the most different thing is that the software failures arising from design faults as 'error crystal', whereas the hardware failures are caused by deficiencies in design, production, and maintenance. For this reason, software reliability assessment has been focused on the optimal release time considering the economy. However, the safety goal and public acceptance of the NPPs is so distinctive with other industries that the software in NPPs is dependent on reliability quantitative value rather than economy. The safety goal of NPPs compared to other industries is exceptionally high, so conventional methodologies on software reliability assessment already used in other industries could not adjust to safety goal of NPPs. Thus, the new reliability assessment methodology of the software of digital I and C on NPPs need to be developed. In this paper, existing software reliability assessment methodologies are reviewed to obtain the pros and cons of them, and then to assess the usefulness of each method to software of NPPs

Software reliability growth model for safety systems of nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thirugnana Murthy, D.; Murali, N.; Sridevi, T.; Satya Murty, S.A.V.; Velusamy, K.

2014-01-01

The demand for complex software systems has increased more rapidly than the ability to design, implement, test, and maintain them, and the reliability of software systems has become a major concern for our, modern society.Software failures have impaired several high visibility programs in space, telecommunications, defense and health industries. Besides the costs involved, it setback the projects. The ways of quantifying it and using it for improvement and control of the software development and maintenance process. This paper discusses need for systematic approaches for measuring and assuring software reliability which is a major share of project development resources. It covers the reliability models with the concern on 'Reliability Growth'. It includes data collection on reliability, statistical estimation and prediction, metrics and attributes of product architecture, design, software development, and the operational environment. Besides its use for operational decisions like deployment, it includes guiding software architecture, development, testing and verification and validation. (author)

Survey of industry methods for producing highly reliable software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, J.D.; Persons, W.L.

1994-11-01

The Nuclear Reactor Regulation Office of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is charged with assessing the safety of new instrument and control designs for nuclear power plants which may use computer-based reactor protection systems. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has evaluated the latest techniques in software reliability for measurement, estimation, error detection, and prediction that can be used during the software life cycle as a means of risk assessment for reactor protection systems. One aspect of this task has been a survey of the software industry to collect information to help identify the design factors used to improve the reliability and safety of software. The intent was to discover what practices really work in industry and what design factors are used by industry to achieve highly reliable software. The results of the survey are documented in this report. Three companies participated in the survey: Computer Sciences Corporation, International Business Machines (Federal Systems Company), and TRW. Discussions were also held with NASA Software Engineering Lab/University of Maryland/CSC, and the AIAA Software Reliability Project

Integrating software reliability concepts into risk and reliability modeling of digital instrumentation and control systems used in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arndt, S. A.

2006-01-01

As software-based digital systems are becoming more and more common in all aspects of industrial process control, including the nuclear power industry, it is vital that the current state of the art in quality, reliability, and safety analysis be advanced to support the quantitative review of these systems. Several research groups throughout the world are working on the development and assessment of software-based digital system reliability methods and their applications in the nuclear power, aerospace, transportation, and defense industries. However, these groups are hampered by the fact that software experts and probabilistic safety assessment experts view reliability engineering very differently. This paper discusses the characteristics of a common vocabulary and modeling framework. (authors)

Procedure for Application of Software Reliability Growth Models to NPP PSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Son, Han Seong; Kang, Hyun Gook; Chang, Seung Cheol

2009-01-01

As the use of software increases at nuclear power plants (NPPs), the necessity for including software reliability and/or safety into the NPP Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) rises. This work proposes an application procedure of software reliability growth models (RGMs), which are most widely used to quantify software reliability, to NPP PSA. Through the proposed procedure, it can be determined if a software reliability growth model can be applied to the NPP PSA before its real application. The procedure proposed in this work is expected to be very helpful for incorporating software into NPP PSA

Software reliability and safety in nuclear reactor protection systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lawrence, J.D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

1993-11-01

Planning the development, use and regulation of computer systems in nuclear reactor protection systems in such a way as to enhance reliability and safety is a complex issue. This report is one of a series of reports from the Computer Safety and Reliability Group, Lawrence Livermore that investigates different aspects of computer software in reactor National Laboratory, that investigates different aspects of computer software in reactor protection systems. There are two central themes in the report, First, software considerations cannot be fully understood in isolation from computer hardware and application considerations. Second, the process of engineering reliability and safety into a computer system requires activities to be carried out throughout the software life cycle. The report discusses the many activities that can be carried out during the software life cycle to improve the safety and reliability of the resulting product. The viewpoint is primarily that of the assessor, or auditor.

Software reliability and safety in nuclear reactor protection systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, J.D.

1993-11-01

Planning the development, use and regulation of computer systems in nuclear reactor protection systems in such a way as to enhance reliability and safety is a complex issue. This report is one of a series of reports from the Computer Safety and Reliability Group, Lawrence Livermore that investigates different aspects of computer software in reactor National Laboratory, that investigates different aspects of computer software in reactor protection systems. There are two central themes in the report, First, software considerations cannot be fully understood in isolation from computer hardware and application considerations. Second, the process of engineering reliability and safety into a computer system requires activities to be carried out throughout the software life cycle. The report discusses the many activities that can be carried out during the software life cycle to improve the safety and reliability of the resulting product. The viewpoint is primarily that of the assessor, or auditor

Using software metrics and software reliability models to attain acceptable quality software for flight and ground support software for avionic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Lawrence, Stella

1992-01-01

This paper is concerned with methods of measuring and developing quality software. Reliable flight and ground support software is a highly important factor in the successful operation of the space shuttle program. Reliability is probably the most important of the characteristics inherent in the concept of 'software quality'. It is the probability of failure free operation of a computer program for a specified time and environment.

An Intuitionistic Fuzzy Methodology for Component-Based Software Reliability Optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Henrik; Grigore, Albeanu; Popenţiuvlǎdicescu, Florin

2012-01-01

Component-based software development is the current methodology facilitating agility in project management, software reuse in design and implementation, promoting quality and productivity, and increasing the reliability and performability. This paper illustrates the usage of intuitionistic fuzzy...... degree approach in modelling the quality of entities in imprecise software reliability computing in order to optimize management results. Intuitionistic fuzzy optimization algorithms are proposed to be used for complex software systems reliability optimization under various constraints....

Software Design for Smile Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Sarkhosh

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Esthetics and attractiveness of the smile is one of the major demands in contemporary orthodontic treatment. In order to improve a smile design, it is necessary to record “posed smile” as an intentional, non-pressure, static, natural and reproduciblesmile. The record then should be analyzed to determine its characteristics. In this study,we intended to design and introduce a software to analyze the smile rapidly and precisely in order to produce an attractive smile for the patients.Materials and Methods: For this purpose, a practical study was performed to design multimedia software “Smile Analysis” which can receive patients’ photographs and videographs. After giving records to the software, the operator should mark the points and lines which are displayed on the system’s guide and also define the correct scale for each image. Thirty-three variables are measured by the software and displayed on the report page. Reliability of measurements in both image and video was significantly high(=0.7-1.Results: In order to evaluate intra- operator and inter-operator reliability, five cases were selected randomly. Statistical analysis showed that calculations performed in smile analysis software were both valid and highly reliable (for both video and photo.Conclusion: The results obtained from smile analysis could be used in diagnosis,treatment planning and evaluation of the treatment progress.

NHPP-Based Software Reliability Models Using Equilibrium Distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Xiao; Okamura, Hiroyuki; Dohi, Tadashi

Non-homogeneous Poisson processes (NHPPs) have gained much popularity in actual software testing phases to estimate the software reliability, the number of remaining faults in software and the software release timing. In this paper, we propose a new modeling approach for the NHPP-based software reliability models (SRMs) to describe the stochastic behavior of software fault-detection processes. The fundamental idea is to apply the equilibrium distribution to the fault-detection time distribution in NHPP-based modeling. We also develop efficient parameter estimation procedures for the proposed NHPP-based SRMs. Through numerical experiments, it can be concluded that the proposed NHPP-based SRMs outperform the existing ones in many data sets from the perspective of goodness-of-fit and prediction performance.

Power electronics reliability analysis.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Mark A.; Atcitty, Stanley

2009-12-01

This report provides the DOE and industry with a general process for analyzing power electronics reliability. The analysis can help with understanding the main causes of failures, downtime, and cost and how to reduce them. One approach is to collect field maintenance data and use it directly to calculate reliability metrics related to each cause. Another approach is to model the functional structure of the equipment using a fault tree to derive system reliability from component reliability. Analysis of a fictitious device demonstrates the latter process. Optimization can use the resulting baseline model to decide how to improve reliability and/or lower costs. It is recommended that both electric utilities and equipment manufacturers make provisions to collect and share data in order to lay the groundwork for improving reliability into the future. Reliability analysis helps guide reliability improvements in hardware and software technology including condition monitoring and prognostics and health management.

Software safety hazard analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, J.D.

1996-02-01

Techniques for analyzing the safety and reliability of analog-based electronic protection systems that serve to mitigate hazards in process control systems have been developed over many years, and are reasonably well understood. An example is the protection system in a nuclear power plant. The extension of these techniques to systems which include digital computers is not well developed, and there is little consensus among software engineering experts and safety experts on how to analyze such systems. One possible technique is to extend hazard analysis to include digital computer-based systems. Software is frequently overlooked during system hazard analyses, but this is unacceptable when the software is in control of a potentially hazardous operation. In such cases, hazard analysis should be extended to fully cover the software. A method for performing software hazard analysis is proposed in this paper

Quantitative software-reliability analysis of computer codes relevant to nuclear safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller, C.J.

1981-12-01

This report presents the results of the first year of an ongoing research program to determine the probability of failure characteristics of computer codes relevant to nuclear safety. An introduction to both qualitative and quantitative aspects of nuclear software is given. A mathematical framework is presented which will enable the a priori prediction of the probability of failure characteristics of a code given the proper specification of its properties. The framework consists of four parts: (1) a classification system for software errors and code failures; (2) probabilistic modeling for selected reliability characteristics; (3) multivariate regression analyses to establish predictive relationships among reliability characteristics and generic code property and development parameters; and (4) the associated information base. Preliminary data of the type needed to support the modeling and the predictions of this program are described. Illustrations of the use of the modeling are given but the results so obtained, as well as all results of code failure probabilities presented herein, are based on data which at this point are preliminary, incomplete, and possibly non-representative of codes relevant to nuclear safety

Conceptual Software Reliability Prediction Models for Nuclear Power Plant Safety Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, G.; Lawrence, D.; Yu, H.

2000-01-01

The objective of this project is to develop a method to predict the potential reliability of software to be used in a digital system instrumentation and control system. The reliability prediction is to make use of existing measures of software reliability such as those described in IEEE Std 982 and 982.2. This prediction must be of sufficient accuracy to provide a value for uncertainty that could be used in a nuclear power plant probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). For the purposes of the project, reliability was defined to be the probability that the digital system will successfully perform its intended safety function (for the distribution of conditions under which it is expected to respond) upon demand with no unintended functions that might affect system safety. The ultimate objective is to use the identified measures to develop a method for predicting the potential quantitative reliability of a digital system. The reliability prediction models proposed in this report are conceptual in nature. That is, possible prediction techniques are proposed and trial models are built, but in order to become a useful tool for predicting reliability, the models must be tested, modified according to the results, and validated. Using methods outlined by this project, models could be constructed to develop reliability estimates for elements of software systems. This would require careful review and refinement of the models, development of model parameters from actual experience data or expert elicitation, and careful validation. By combining these reliability estimates (generated from the validated models for the constituent parts) in structural software models, the reliability of the software system could then be predicted. Modeling digital system reliability will also require that methods be developed for combining reliability estimates for hardware and software. System structural models must also be developed in order to predict system reliability based upon the reliability

Maximum Entropy Discrimination Poisson Regression for Software Reliability Modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatzis, Sotirios P; Andreou, Andreas S

2015-11-01

Reliably predicting software defects is one of the most significant tasks in software engineering. Two of the major components of modern software reliability modeling approaches are: 1) extraction of salient features for software system representation, based on appropriately designed software metrics and 2) development of intricate regression models for count data, to allow effective software reliability data modeling and prediction. Surprisingly, research in the latter frontier of count data regression modeling has been rather limited. More specifically, a lack of simple and efficient algorithms for posterior computation has made the Bayesian approaches appear unattractive, and thus underdeveloped in the context of software reliability modeling. In this paper, we try to address these issues by introducing a novel Bayesian regression model for count data, based on the concept of max-margin data modeling, effected in the context of a fully Bayesian model treatment with simple and efficient posterior distribution updates. Our novel approach yields a more discriminative learning technique, making more effective use of our training data during model inference. In addition, it allows of better handling uncertainty in the modeled data, which can be a significant problem when the training data are limited. We derive elegant inference algorithms for our model under the mean-field paradigm and exhibit its effectiveness using the publicly available benchmark data sets.

Application of fuzzy-MOORA method: Ranking of components for reliability estimation of component-based software systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zeeshan Ali Siddiqui

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Component-based software system (CBSS development technique is an emerging discipline that promises to take software development into a new era. As hardware systems are presently being constructed from kits of parts, software systems may also be assembled from components. It is more reliable to reuse software than to create. It is the glue code and individual components reliability that contribute to the reliability of the overall system. Every component contributes to overall system reliability according to the number of times it is being used, some components are of critical usage, known as usage frequency of component. The usage frequency decides the weight of each component. According to their weights, each component contributes to the overall reliability of the system. Therefore, ranking of components may be obtained by analyzing their reliability impacts on overall application. In this paper, we propose the application of fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis, Fuzzy-MOORA. The method helps us find the best suitable alternative, software component, from a set of available feasible alternatives named software components. It is an accurate and easy to understand tool for solving multi-criteria decision making problems that have imprecise and vague evaluation data. By the use of ratio analysis, the proposed method determines the most suitable alternative among all possible alternatives, and dimensionless measurement will realize the job of ranking of components for estimating CBSS reliability in a non-subjective way. Finally, three case studies are shown to illustrate the use of the proposed technique.

RAVONSICS-challenging for assuring software reliability of nuclear I and C system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hai Zeng; Ming Yang; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu

2015-01-01

As the “central nerve system”, the highly reliable Instrumentation and Control (I and C) systems, which provide the right functions and functions correctly, are always desirable not only for the end users of NPPs but also the suppliers of I and C systems. The Digitalization of nuclear I and C system happened in recent years brought a lot of new features for nuclear I and C system. On one side digital technology provides more functionalities, and it should be more reliable and robust; on the other side, digital technology brings new challenge for nuclear I and C system, especially the software running in the hardware component. The software provides flexible functionalities for nuclear I and C system, but it also brings the difficulties to evaluate the reliability and safety of it because of the complexity of software. The reliability of software, which is indispensable part of I and C system, will have essential impact on the reliability of the whole system, and people definitely want to know what the reliability of this intangible part is. The methods used for the evaluation of reliability of system and hardware hardly work for software, because the inherent difference of failure mechanism exists between software and hardware. Failure in software is systematically induced by design error, but failure in hardware is randomly induced by material and production. To continue the effort on this hot topic and to try to achieve consensus on the potential methodology for software reliability evaluation, a cooperative research project called RAVONSICS (Reliability and Verification and Validation of Nuclear Safety I and C Software) is being carried on by 7 Chinese partners, which includes University, research institute, utility, vendor, and safety regulatory body. The objective of RAVONSICS is to bring forwards the methodology for the software reliability evaluation, and the software verification technique. RAVONSICS works cooperatively with its European sister project

Stochastic Differential Equation-Based Flexible Software Reliability Growth Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. K. Kapur

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Several software reliability growth models (SRGMs have been developed by software developers in tracking and measuring the growth of reliability. As the size of software system is large and the number of faults detected during the testing phase becomes large, so the change of the number of faults that are detected and removed through each debugging becomes sufficiently small compared with the initial fault content at the beginning of the testing phase. In such a situation, we can model the software fault detection process as a stochastic process with continuous state space. In this paper, we propose a new software reliability growth model based on Itô type of stochastic differential equation. We consider an SDE-based generalized Erlang model with logistic error detection function. The model is estimated and validated on real-life data sets cited in literature to show its flexibility. The proposed model integrated with the concept of stochastic differential equation performs comparatively better than the existing NHPP-based models.

A study on the quantitative evaluation of the reliability for safety critical software using Bayesian belief nets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, H. S.; Jang, S. C.; Ha, J. J.

2003-01-01

Despite the efforts to avoid undesirable risks, or at least to bring them under control in the world, new risks that are highly difficult to manage continue to emerge from the use of new technologies, such as the use of digital instrumentation and control (I and C) components in nuclear power plant. Whenever new risk issues came out by now, we have endeavored to find the most effective ways to reduce risks, or to allocate limited resources to do this. One of the major challenges is the reliability analysis of safety-critical software associated with digital safety systems. Though many activities such as testing, verification and validation (V and V) techniques have been carried out in the design stage of software, however, the process of quantitatively evaluating the reliability of safety-critical software has not yet been developed because of the irrelevance of the conventional software reliability techniques to apply for the digital safety systems. This paper focuses on the applicability of Bayesian Belief Net (BBN) techniques to quantitatively estimate the reliability of safety-critical software adopted in digital safety system. In this paper, a typical BBN model was constructed using the dedication process of the Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) installed by KAERI. In conclusion, the adoption of BBN technique can facilitate the process of evaluating the safety-critical software reliability in nuclear power plant, as well as provide very useful information (e.g., 'what if' analysis) associated with software reliability in the viewpoint of practicality

The architecture of a reliable software monitoring system for embedded software systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munson, J.; Krings, A.; Hiromoto, R.

2006-01-01

We develop the notion of a measurement-based methodology for embedded software systems to ensure properties of reliability, survivability and security, not only under benign faults but under malicious and hazardous conditions as well. The driving force is the need to develop a dynamic run-time monitoring system for use in these embedded mission critical systems. These systems must run reliably, must be secure and they must fail gracefully. That is, they must continue operating in the face of the departures from their nominal operating scenarios, the failure of one or more system components due to normal hardware and software faults, as well as malicious acts. To insure the integrity of embedded software systems, the activity of these systems must be monitored as they operate. For each of these systems, it is possible to establish a very succinct representation of nominal system activity. Furthermore, it is possible to detect departures from the nominal operating scenario in a timely fashion. Such departure may be due to various circumstances, e.g., an assault from an outside agent, thus forcing the system to operate in an off-nominal environment for which it was neither tested nor certified, or a hardware/software component that has ceased to operate in a nominal fashion. A well-designed system will have the property of graceful degradation. It must continue to run even though some of the functionality may have been lost. This involves the intelligent re-mapping of system functions. Those functions that are impacted by the failure of a system component must be identified and isolated. Thus, a system must be designed so that its basic operations may be re-mapped onto system components still operational. That is, the mission objectives of the software must be reassessed in terms of the current operational capabilities of the software system. By integrating the mechanisms to support observation and detection directly into the design methodology, we propose to shift

Integrated Reliability Estimation of a Nuclear Maintenance Robot including a Software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eom, Heung Seop; Kim, Jae Hee; Jeong, Kyung Min [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2011-10-15

Conventional reliability estimation techniques such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Reliability Block Diagram (RBD), Markov Model, and Event Tree Analysis (ETA) have been used widely and approved in some industries. Then there are some limitations when we use them for a complicate robot systems including software such as intelligent reactor inspection robots. Therefore an expert's judgment plays an important role in estimating the reliability of a complicate system in practice, because experts can deal with diverse evidence related to the reliability and then perform an inference based on them. The proposed method in this paper combines qualitative and quantitative evidences and performs an inference like experts. Furthermore, it does the work in a formal and in a quantitative way unlike human experts, by the benefits of Bayesian Nets (BNs)

Reliability Analysis and Optimal Release Problem Considering Maintenance Time of Software Components for an Embedded OSS Porting Phase

Science.gov (United States)

Tamura, Yoshinobu; Yamada, Shigeru

OSS (open source software) systems which serve as key components of critical infrastructures in our social life are still ever-expanding now. Especially, embedded OSS systems have been gaining a lot of attention in the embedded system area, i.e., Android, BusyBox, TRON, etc. However, the poor handling of quality problem and customer support prohibit the progress of embedded OSS. Also, it is difficult for developers to assess the reliability and portability of embedded OSS on a single-board computer. In this paper, we propose a method of software reliability assessment based on flexible hazard rates for the embedded OSS. Also, we analyze actual data of software failure-occurrence time-intervals to show numerical examples of software reliability assessment for the embedded OSS. Moreover, we compare the proposed hazard rate model for the embedded OSS with the typical conventional hazard rate models by using the comparison criteria of goodness-of-fit. Furthermore, we discuss the optimal software release problem for the porting-phase based on the total expected software maintenance cost.

software reliability: failures, consequences and improvement

African Journals Online (AJOL)

BARTH EKWUEME

2009-07-16

Jul 16, 2009 ... function of time, but it is believed that some modeling technique for software reliability is reaching propensity, by ..... February 25, 1991 during the Gulf war, the chopping ... Let us consider a few key concepts that apply to both.

Reliability and accuracy of three imaging software packages used for 3D analysis of the upper airway on cone beam computed tomography images.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hui; van Eijnatten, Maureen; Wolff, Jan; de Lange, Jan; van der Stelt, Paul F; Lobbezoo, Frank; Aarab, Ghizlane

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and accuracy of three different imaging software packages for three-dimensional analysis of the upper airway using CBCT images. To assess the reliability of the software packages, 15 NewTom 5G ® (QR Systems, Verona, Italy) CBCT data sets were randomly and retrospectively selected. Two observers measured the volume, minimum cross-sectional area and the length of the upper airway using Amira ® (Visage Imaging Inc., Carlsbad, CA), 3Diagnosys ® (3diemme, Cantu, Italy) and OnDemand3D ® (CyberMed, Seoul, Republic of Korea) software packages. The intra- and inter-observer reliability of the upper airway measurements were determined using intraclass correlation coefficients and Bland & Altman agreement tests. To assess the accuracy of the software packages, one NewTom 5G ® CBCT data set was used to print a three-dimensional anthropomorphic phantom with known dimensions to be used as the "gold standard". This phantom was subsequently scanned using a NewTom 5G ® scanner. Based on the CBCT data set of the phantom, one observer measured the volume, minimum cross-sectional area, and length of the upper airway using Amira ® , 3Diagnosys ® , and OnDemand3D ® , and compared these measurements with the gold standard. The intra- and inter-observer reliability of the measurements of the upper airway using the different software packages were excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥0.75). There was excellent agreement between all three software packages in volume, minimum cross-sectional area and length measurements. All software packages underestimated the upper airway volume by -8.8% to -12.3%, the minimum cross-sectional area by -6.2% to -14.6%, and the length by -1.6% to -2.9%. All three software packages offered reliable volume, minimum cross-sectional area and length measurements of the upper airway. The length measurements of the upper airway were the most accurate results in all software packages. All

Reliability analysis of reactor inspection robot(RIROB)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, H. S.; Kim, J. H.; Lee, J. C.; Choi, Y. R.; Moon, S. S.

2002-05-01

This report describes the method and the result of the reliability analysis of RIROB developed in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. There are many classic techniques and models for the reliability analysis. These techniques and models have been used widely and approved in other industries such as aviation and nuclear industry. Though these techniques and models have been approved in real fields they are still insufficient for the complicated systems such RIROB which are composed of computer, networks, electronic parts, mechanical parts, and software. Particularly the application of these analysis techniques to digital and software parts of complicated systems is immature at this time thus expert judgement plays important role in evaluating the reliability of the systems at these days. In this report we proposed a method which combines diverse evidences relevant to the reliability to evaluate the reliability of complicated systems such as RIROB. The proposed method combines diverse evidences and performs inference in formal and in quantitative way by using the benefits of Bayesian Belief Nets (BBN)

Software reliability for safety-critical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Everett, B.; Musa, J.

1994-01-01

In this talk, the authors address the question open-quotes Can Software Reliability Engineering measurement and modeling techniques be applied to safety-critical applications?close quotes Quantitative techniques have long been applied in engineering hardware components of safety-critical applications. The authors have seen a growing acceptance and use of quantitative techniques in engineering software systems but a continuing reluctance in using such techniques in safety-critical applications. The general case posed against using quantitative techniques for software components runs along the following lines: safety-critical applications should be engineered such that catastrophic failures occur less frequently than one in a billion hours of operation; current software measurement/modeling techniques rely on using failure history data collected during testing; one would have to accumulate over a billion operational hours to verify failure rate objectives of about one per billion hours

The reliability and usability of district health information software ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The reliability and usability of district health information software: case studies from Tanzania. ... The District Health Information System (DHIS) software from the Health Information System ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Prediction of Software Reliability using Bio Inspired Soft Computing Techniques.

Science.gov (United States)

Diwaker, Chander; Tomar, Pradeep; Poonia, Ramesh C; Singh, Vijander

2018-04-10

A lot of models have been made for predicting software reliability. The reliability models are restricted to using particular types of methodologies and restricted number of parameters. There are a number of techniques and methodologies that may be used for reliability prediction. There is need to focus on parameters consideration while estimating reliability. The reliability of a system may increase or decreases depending on the selection of different parameters used. Thus there is need to identify factors that heavily affecting the reliability of the system. In present days, reusability is mostly used in the various area of research. Reusability is the basis of Component-Based System (CBS). The cost, time and human skill can be saved using Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) concepts. CBSE metrics may be used to assess those techniques which are more suitable for estimating system reliability. Soft computing is used for small as well as large-scale problems where it is difficult to find accurate results due to uncertainty or randomness. Several possibilities are available to apply soft computing techniques in medicine related problems. Clinical science of medicine using fuzzy-logic, neural network methodology significantly while basic science of medicine using neural-networks-genetic algorithm most frequently and preferably. There is unavoidable interest shown by medical scientists to use the various soft computing methodologies in genetics, physiology, radiology, cardiology and neurology discipline. CBSE boost users to reuse the past and existing software for making new products to provide quality with a saving of time, memory space, and money. This paper focused on assessment of commonly used soft computing technique like Genetic Algorithm (GA), Neural-Network (NN), Fuzzy Logic, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC). This paper presents working of soft computing

Techniques, processes, and measures for software safety and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sparkman, D.

1992-01-01

The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed survey of current recommended practices and measurement techniques for the development of reliable and safe software-based systems. This report is intended to assist the United States Nuclear Reaction Regulation (NRR) in determining the importance and maturity of the available techniques and in assessing the relevance of individual standards for application to instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power generating stations. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provides technical support for the Instrumentation and Control System Branch (ICSB) of NRRin advanced instrumentation and control systems, distributed digital systems, software reliability, and the application of verificafion and validafion for the development of software

Software reliability through fault-avoidance and fault-tolerance

Science.gov (United States)

Vouk, Mladen A.; Mcallister, David F.

1992-01-01

Accomplishments in the following research areas are summarized: structure based testing, reliability growth, and design testability with risk evaluation; reliability growth models and software risk management; and evaluation of consensus voting, consensus recovery block, and acceptance voting. Four papers generated during the reporting period are included as appendices.

Estimating the Parameters of Software Reliability Growth Models Using the Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Alaa F. Sheta; Amal Abdel-Raouf

2016-01-01

In this age of technology, building quality software is essential to competing in the business market. One of the major principles required for any quality and business software product for value fulfillment is reliability. Estimating software reliability early during the software development life cycle saves time and money as it prevents spending larger sums fixing a defective software product after deployment. The Software Reliability Growth Model (SRGM) can be used to predict the number of...

Improved Efficiency and Reliability of NGS Amplicon Sequencing Data Analysis for Genetic Diagnostic Procedures Using AGSA Software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Axel Poulet

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Screening for BRCA mutations in women with familial risk of breast or ovarian cancer is an ideal situation for high-throughput sequencing, providing large amounts of low cost data. However, 454, Roche, and Ion Torrent, Thermo Fisher, technologies produce homopolymer-associated indel errors, complicating their use in routine diagnostics. We developed software, named AGSA, which helps to detect false positive mutations in homopolymeric sequences. Seventy-two familial breast cancer cases were analysed in parallel by amplicon 454 pyrosequencing and Sanger dideoxy sequencing for genetic variations of the BRCA genes. All 565 variants detected by dideoxy sequencing were also detected by pyrosequencing. Furthermore, pyrosequencing detected 42 variants that were missed with Sanger technique. Six amplicons contained homopolymer tracts in the coding sequence that were systematically misread by the software supplied by Roche. Read data plotted as histograms by AGSA software aided the analysis considerably and allowed validation of the majority of homopolymers. As an optimisation, additional 250 patients were analysed using microfluidic amplification of regions of interest (Access Array Fluidigm of the BRCA genes, followed by 454 sequencing and AGSA analysis. AGSA complements a complete line of high-throughput diagnostic sequence analysis, reducing time and costs while increasing reliability, notably for homopolymer tracts.

Method for assessing software reliability of the document management system using the RFID technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiedrowicz Maciej

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The deliberations presented in this study refer to the method for assessing software reliability of the docu-ment management system, using the RFID technology. A method for determining the reliability structure of the dis-cussed software, understood as the index vector for assessing reliability of its components, was proposed. The model of the analyzed software is the control transfer graph, in which the probability of activating individual components during the system's operation results from the so-called operational profile, which characterizes the actual working environment. The reliability structure is established as a result of the solution of a specific mathematical software task. The knowledge of the reliability structure of the software makes it possible to properly plan the time and finan-cial expenses necessary to build the software, which would meet the reliability requirements. The application of the presented method is illustrated by the number example, corresponding to the software reality of the RFID document management system.

A Bayesian belief nets based quantitative software reliability assessment for PSA: COTS case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, H. S.; Sung, T. Y.; Jeong, H. S.; Park, J. H.; Kang, H. G.; Lee, K. Y.; Park, J. K

2002-03-01

Current reliability assessments of safety critical software embedded in the digital systems in nuclear power plants are based on the rule-based qualitative assessment methods. Then recently practical needs require the quantitative features of software reliability for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) that is one of important methods being used in assessing the whole safety of nuclear power plant. But conventional quantitative software reliability assessment methods are not enough to get the necessary results in assessing the safety critical software used in nuclear power plants. Thus, current reliability assessment methods for these digital systems exclude the software part or use arbitrary values for the software reliability in the assessment. This reports discusses a Bayesian Belief Nets (BBN) based quantification method that models current qualitative software assessment in formal way and produces quantitative results required for PSA. Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software dedication process that KAERI developed was applied to the discussed BBN based method for evaluating the plausibility of the proposed method in PSA

Software Reliability Issues Concerning Large and Safety Critical Software Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Kamel, Khaled; Brown, Barbara

1996-01-01

This research was undertaken to provide NASA with a survey of state-of-the-art techniques using in industrial and academia to provide safe, reliable, and maintainable software to drive large systems. Such systems must match the complexity and strict safety requirements of NASA's shuttle system. In particular, the Launch Processing System (LPS) is being considered for replacement. The LPS is responsible for monitoring and commanding the shuttle during test, repair, and launch phases. NASA built this system in the 1970's using mostly hardware techniques to provide for increased reliability, but it did so often using custom-built equipment, which has not been able to keep up with current technologies. This report surveys the major techniques used in industry and academia to ensure reliability in large and critical computer systems.

Reliability analysis of digital I and C systems at KAERI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol

2013-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the ongoing research activities on a reliability analysis of digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems of nuclear power plants (NPPs) performed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The research activities include the development of a new safety-critical software reliability analysis method by integrating the advantages of existing software reliability analysis methods, a fault coverage estimation method based on fault injection experiments, and a new human reliability analysis method for computer-based main control rooms (MCRs) based on human performance data from the APR-1400 full-scope simulator. The research results are expected to be used to address various issues such as the licensing issues related to digital I and C probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for advanced digital-based NPPs. (author)

Software reliability growth models with normal failure time distributions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okamura, Hiroyuki; Dohi, Tadashi; Osaki, Shunji

2013-01-01

This paper proposes software reliability growth models (SRGM) where the software failure time follows a normal distribution. The proposed model is mathematically tractable and has sufficient ability of fitting to the software failure data. In particular, we consider the parameter estimation algorithm for the SRGM with normal distribution. The developed algorithm is based on an EM (expectation-maximization) algorithm and is quite simple for implementation as software application. Numerical experiment is devoted to investigating the fitting ability of the SRGMs with normal distribution through 16 types of failure time data collected in real software projects

Results of the EC research project REQUEST on software quality and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kersken, M.; Saglietti, F.

1990-01-01

GRS work in software safety was mainly concerned with the qualitative assessment of software reliability and quality. As a supplement to these activities the work within the REQUEST project emphasized the quantitative determination of the respective parameters. The three-level quality model COQUAMO serves for the computation - and partly for the prediction - of quality factors during the software life cycle. PERFIDE controls the application of software reliability models during the test phase and in early operational life. Specific attention was paid to the assessment of fault-tolerant diverse software systems. (orig.) [de

High level issues in reliability quantification of safety-critical software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol

2012-01-01

For the purpose of developing a consensus method for the reliability assessment of safety-critical digital instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants, several high level issues in reliability assessment of the safety-critical software based on Bayesian belief network modeling and statistical testing are discussed. Related to the Bayesian belief network modeling, the relation between the assessment approach and the sources of evidence, the relation between qualitative evidence and quantitative evidence, how to consider qualitative evidence, and the cause-consequence relation are discussed. Related to the statistical testing, the need of the consideration of context-specific software failure probabilities and the inability to perform a huge number of tests in the real world are discussed. The discussions in this paper are expected to provide a common basis for future discussions on the reliability assessment of safety-critical software. (author)

High-Reliable PLC RTOS Development and RPS Structure Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sohn, H. S.; Song, D. Y.; Sohn, D. S.; Kim, J. H. [Enersys Co., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2008-04-15

One of the KNICS objectives is to develop a platform for Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) I and C(Instrumentation and Control) system, especially plant protection system. The developed platform is POSAFE-Q and this work supports the development of POSAFE-Q with the development of high-reliable real-time operating system(RTOS) and programmable logic device(PLD) software. Another KNICS objective is to develop safety I and C systems, such as Reactor Protection System(RPS) and Engineered Safety Feature-Component Control System(ESF-CCS). This work plays an important role in the structure analysis for RPS. Validation and verification(V and V) of the safety critical software is an essential work to make digital plant protection system highly reliable and safe. Generally, the reliability and safety of software based system can be improved by strict quality assurance framework including the software development itself. In other words, through V and V, the reliability and safety of a system can be improved and the development activities like software requirement specification, software design specification, component tests, integration tests, and system tests shall be appropriately documented for V and V.

High-Reliable PLC RTOS Development and RPS Structure Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sohn, H. S.; Song, D. Y.; Sohn, D. S.; Kim, J. H.

2008-04-01

One of the KNICS objectives is to develop a platform for Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) I and C(Instrumentation and Control) system, especially plant protection system. The developed platform is POSAFE-Q and this work supports the development of POSAFE-Q with the development of high-reliable real-time operating system(RTOS) and programmable logic device(PLD) software. Another KNICS objective is to develop safety I and C systems, such as Reactor Protection System(RPS) and Engineered Safety Feature-Component Control System(ESF-CCS). This work plays an important role in the structure analysis for RPS. Validation and verification(V and V) of the safety critical software is an essential work to make digital plant protection system highly reliable and safe. Generally, the reliability and safety of software based system can be improved by strict quality assurance framework including the software development itself. In other words, through V and V, the reliability and safety of a system can be improved and the development activities like software requirement specification, software design specification, component tests, integration tests, and system tests shall be appropriately documented for V and V.

Building fast, reliable, and adaptive software for computational science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rendell, A P; Antony, J; Armstrong, W; Janes, P; Yang, R

2008-01-01

Building fast, reliable, and adaptive software is a constant challenge for computational science, especially given recent developments in computer architecture. This paper outlines some of our efforts to address these three issues in the context of computational chemistry. First, a simple linear performance that can be used to model and predict the performance of Hartree-Fock calculations is discussed. Second, the use of interval arithmetic to assess the numerical reliability of the sort of integrals used in electronic structure methods is presented. Third, use of dynamic code modification as part of a framework to support adaptive software is outlined

Study of evaluation techniques of software configuration management and reliability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Youn, Cheong; Baek, Y. W.; Kim, H. C.; Han, H. C.; Choi, C. R. [Chungnam National Univ., Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

2001-03-15

The Study of activities to solve software safety and quality must be executed in base of establishing software development process for digitalized nuclear plant. Especially study of software testing and Verification and Validation must executed. For this purpose methodologies and tools which can improve software qualities are evaluated and software Testing, V and V and Configuration Management which can be applied to software life cycle are investigated. This study establish a guideline that can be used to assure software safety and reliability requirements in digitalized nuclear plant systems.

Integrated analysis software for bulk power system stability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tanaka, T; Nagao, T; Takahashi, K [Central Research Inst. of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

1994-12-31

This paper presents Central Research Inst.of Electric Power Industry - CRIEPI`s - own developed three softwares for bulk power network analysis and the user support system which arranges tremendous data necessary for these softwares with easy and high reliability. (author) 3 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs.

Optimal Release Time and Sensitivity Analysis Using a New NHPP Software Reliability Model with Probability of Fault Removal Subject to Operating Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kwang Yoon Song

2018-05-01

Full Text Available With the latest technological developments, the software industry is at the center of the fourth industrial revolution. In today’s complex and rapidly changing environment, where software applications must be developed quickly and easily, software must be focused on rapidly changing information technology. The basic goal of software engineering is to produce high-quality software at low cost. However, because of the complexity of software systems, software development can be time consuming and expensive. Software reliability models (SRMs are used to estimate and predict the reliability, number of remaining faults, failure intensity, total and development cost, etc., of software. Additionally, it is very important to decide when, how, and at what cost to release the software to users. In this study, we propose a new nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP SRM with a fault detection rate function affected by the probability of fault removal on failure subject to operating environments and discuss the optimal release time and software reliability with the new NHPP SRM. The example results show a good fit to the proposed model, and we propose an optimal release time for a given change in the proposed model.

Standardizing Activation Analysis: New Software for Photon Activation Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Z. J.; Wells, D.; Segebade, C.; Green, J.

2011-06-01

Photon Activation Analysis (PAA) of environmental, archaeological and industrial samples requires extensive data analysis that is susceptible to error. For the purpose of saving time, manpower and minimizing error, a computer program was designed, built and implemented using SQL, Access 2007 and asp.net technology to automate this process. Based on the peak information of the spectrum and assisted by its PAA library, the program automatically identifies elements in the samples and calculates their concentrations and respective uncertainties. The software also could be operated in browser/server mode, which gives the possibility to use it anywhere the internet is accessible. By switching the nuclide library and the related formula behind, the new software can be easily expanded to neutron activation analysis (NAA), charged particle activation analysis (CPAA) or proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). Implementation of this would standardize the analysis of nuclear activation data. Results from this software were compared to standard PAA analysis with excellent agreement. With minimum input from the user, the software has proven to be fast, user-friendly and reliable.

Standardizing Activation Analysis: New Software for Photon Activation Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, Z. J.; Wells, D.; Green, J.; Segebade, C.

2011-01-01

Photon Activation Analysis (PAA) of environmental, archaeological and industrial samples requires extensive data analysis that is susceptible to error. For the purpose of saving time, manpower and minimizing error, a computer program was designed, built and implemented using SQL, Access 2007 and asp.net technology to automate this process. Based on the peak information of the spectrum and assisted by its PAA library, the program automatically identifies elements in the samples and calculates their concentrations and respective uncertainties. The software also could be operated in browser/server mode, which gives the possibility to use it anywhere the internet is accessible. By switching the nuclide library and the related formula behind, the new software can be easily expanded to neutron activation analysis (NAA), charged particle activation analysis (CPAA) or proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). Implementation of this would standardize the analysis of nuclear activation data. Results from this software were compared to standard PAA analysis with excellent agreement. With minimum input from the user, the software has proven to be fast, user-friendly and reliable.

Flexible, reliable software using patterns and agile development

CERN Document Server

Christensen, Henrik B

2010-01-01

…This book brings together a careful selection of topics that are relevant, indeed crucial, for developing good quality software with a carefully designed pedagogy that leads the reader through an experience of active learning. The emphasis in the content is on practical goals-how to construct reliable and flexible software systems-covering many topics that every software engineer should have studied. The emphasis in the method is on providing a practical context, hands-on projects, and guidance on process. … The text discusses not only what the end product should be like, but also how to get

A general software reliability process simulation technique

Science.gov (United States)

Tausworthe, Robert C.

1991-01-01

The structure and rationale of the generalized software reliability process, together with the design and implementation of a computer program that simulates this process are described. Given assumed parameters of a particular project, the users of this program are able to generate simulated status timelines of work products, numbers of injected anomalies, and the progress of testing, fault isolation, repair, validation, and retest. Such timelines are useful in comparison with actual timeline data, for validating the project input parameters, and for providing data for researchers in reliability prediction modeling.

Digital System Reliability Test for the Evaluation of safety Critical Software of Digital Reactor Protection System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyun-Kook Shin

2006-08-01

Full Text Available A new Digital Reactor Protection System (DRPS based on VME bus Single Board Computer has been developed by KOPEC to prevent software Common Mode Failure(CMF inside digital system. The new DRPS has been proved to be an effective digital safety system to prevent CMF by Defense-in-Depth and Diversity (DID&D analysis. However, for practical use in Nuclear Power Plants, the performance test and the reliability test are essential for the digital system qualification. In this study, a single channel of DRPS prototype has been manufactured for the evaluation of DRPS capabilities. The integrated functional tests are performed and the system reliability is analyzed and tested. The results of reliability test show that the application software of DRPS has a very high reliability compared with the analog reactor protection systems.

Reliability estimation of safety-critical software-based systems using Bayesian networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helminen, A.

2001-06-01

Due to the nature of software faults and the way they cause system failures new methods are needed for the safety and reliability evaluation of software-based safety-critical automation systems in nuclear power plants. In the research project 'Programmable automation system safety integrity assessment (PASSI)', belonging to the Finnish Nuclear Safety Research Programme (FINNUS, 1999-2002), various safety assessment methods and tools for software based systems are developed and evaluated. The project is financed together by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (KTM) and the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). In this report the applicability of Bayesian networks to the reliability estimation of software-based systems is studied. The applicability is evaluated by building Bayesian network models for the systems of interest and performing simulations for these models. In the simulations hypothetical evidence is used for defining the parameter relations and for determining the ability to compensate disparate evidence in the models. Based on the experiences from modelling and simulations we are able to conclude that Bayesian networks provide a good method for the reliability estimation of software-based systems. (orig.)

Reliability and Validity of the Footprint Assessment Method Using Photoshop CS5 Software.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez-Vilahú, Lourdes; Massó-Ortigosa, Núria; Costa-Tutusaus, Lluís; Guerra-Balic, Myriam

2015-05-01

Several sophisticated methods of footprint analysis currently exist. However, it is sometimes useful to apply standard measurement methods of recognized evidence with an easy and quick application. We sought to assess the reliability and validity of a new method of footprint assessment in a healthy population using Photoshop CS5 software (Adobe Systems Inc, San Jose, California). Forty-two footprints, corresponding to 21 healthy individuals (11 men with a mean ± SD age of 20.45 ± 2.16 years and 10 women with a mean ± SD age of 20.00 ± 1.70 years) were analyzed. Footprints were recorded in static bipedal standing position using optical podography and digital photography. Three trials for each participant were performed. The Hernández-Corvo, Chippaux-Smirak, and Staheli indices and the Clarke angle were calculated by manual method and by computerized method using Photoshop CS5 software. Test-retest was used to determine reliability. Validity was obtained by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The reliability test for all of the indices showed high values (ICC, 0.98-0.99). Moreover, the validity test clearly showed no difference between techniques (ICC, 0.99-1). The reliability and validity of a method to measure, assess, and record the podometric indices using Photoshop CS5 software has been demonstrated. This provides a quick and accurate tool useful for the digital recording of morphostatic foot study parameters and their control.

Software testability and its application to avionic software

Science.gov (United States)

Voas, Jeffrey M.; Miller, Keith W.; Payne, Jeffery E.

1993-01-01

Randomly generated black-box testing is an established yet controversial method of estimating software reliability. Unfortunately, as software applications have required higher reliabilities, practical difficulties with black-box testing have become increasingly problematic. These practical problems are particularly acute in life-critical avionics software, where requirements of 10 exp -7 failures per hour of system reliability can translate into a probability of failure (POF) of perhaps 10 exp -9 or less for each individual execution of the software. This paper describes the application of one type of testability analysis called 'sensitivity analysis' to B-737 avionics software; one application of sensitivity analysis is to quantify whether software testing is capable of detecting faults in a particular program and thus whether we can be confident that a tested program is not hiding faults. We so 80 by finding the testabilities of the individual statements of the program, and then use those statement testabilities to find the testabilities of the functions and modules. For the B-737 system we analyzed, we were able to isolate those functions that are more prone to hide errors during system/reliability testing.

Development of a New VLBI Data Analysis Software

Science.gov (United States)

Bolotin, Sergei; Gipson, John M.; MacMillan, Daniel S.

2010-01-01

We present an overview of a new VLBI analysis software under development at NASA GSFC. The new software will replace CALC/SOLVE and many related utility programs. It will have the capabilities of the current system as well as incorporate new models and data analysis techniques. In this paper we give a conceptual overview of the new software. We formulate the main goals of the software. The software should be flexible and modular to implement models and estimation techniques that currently exist or will appear in future. On the other hand it should be reliable and possess production quality for processing standard VLBI sessions. Also, it needs to be capable of processing observations from a fully deployed network of VLBI2010 stations in a reasonable time. We describe the software development process and outline the software architecture.

Reliability Assessment Method of Reactor Protection System Software by Using V and Vbased Bayesian Nets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, H. S.; Park, G. Y.; Kang, H. G.; Son, H. S.

2010-07-01

Developed a methodology which can be practically used in quantitative reliability assessment of a safety c ritical software for a protection system of nuclear power plants. The base of the proposed methodology is V and V being used in the nuclear industry, which means that it is not affected with specific software development environments or parameters that are necessary for the reliability calculation. Modular and formal sub-BNs in the proposed methodology is useful tool to constitute the whole BN model for reliability assessment of a target software. The proposed V and V based BN model estimates the defects in the software according to the performance of V and V results and then calculate reliability of the software. A case study was carried out to validate the proposed methodology. The target software is the RPS SW which was developed by KNICS project

STAMPS: development and verification of swallowing kinematic analysis software.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Woo Hyung; Chun, Changmook; Seo, Han Gil; Lee, Seung Hak; Oh, Byung-Mo

2017-10-17

Swallowing impairment is a common complication in various geriatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Swallowing kinematic analysis is essential to quantitatively evaluate the swallowing motion of the oropharyngeal structures. This study aims to develop a novel swallowing kinematic analysis software, called spatio-temporal analyzer for motion and physiologic study (STAMPS), and verify its validity and reliability. STAMPS was developed in MATLAB, which is one of the most popular platforms for biomedical analysis. This software was constructed to acquire, process, and analyze the data of swallowing motion. The target of swallowing structures includes bony structures (hyoid bone, mandible, maxilla, and cervical vertebral bodies), cartilages (epiglottis and arytenoid), soft tissues (larynx and upper esophageal sphincter), and food bolus. Numerous functions are available for the spatiotemporal parameters of the swallowing structures. Testing for validity and reliability was performed in 10 dysphagia patients with diverse etiologies and using the instrumental swallowing model which was designed to mimic the motion of the hyoid bone and the epiglottis. The intra- and inter-rater reliability tests showed excellent agreement for displacement and moderate to excellent agreement for velocity. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the measured and instrumental reference values were nearly 1.00 (P software is expected to be useful for researchers who are interested in the swallowing motion analysis.

A proposal for performing software safety hazard analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, J.D.; Gallagher, J.M.

1997-01-01

Techniques for analyzing the safety and reliability of analog-based electronic protection systems that serve to mitigate hazards in process control systems have been developed over many years, and are reasonably understood. An example is the protection system in a nuclear power plant. The extension of these techniques to systems which include digital computers is not well developed, and there is little consensus among software engineering experts and safety experts on how to analyze such systems. One possible technique is to extend hazard analysis to include digital computer-based systems. Software is frequently overlooked during system hazard analyses, but this is unacceptable when the software is in control of a potentially hazardous operation. In such cases, hazard analysis should be extended to fully cover the software. A method for performing software hazard analysis is proposed in this paper. The method concentrates on finding hazards during the early stages of the software life cycle, using an extension of HAZOP

Software coding for reliable data communication in a reactor safety system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maghsoodi, R.

1978-01-01

A software coding method is proposed to improve the communication reliability of a microprocessor based fast-reactor safety system. This method which replaces the conventional coding circuitry, applies a program to code the data which is communicated between the processors via their data memories. The system requirements are studied and the suitable codes are suggested. The problems associated with hardware coders, and the advantages of software coding methods are discussed. The product code which proves a faster coding time over the cyclic code is chosen as the final code. Then the improvement of the communication reliability is derived for a processor and its data memory. The result is used to calculate the reliability improvement of the processing channel as the basic unit for the safety system. (author)

Space Shuttle Program Primary Avionics Software System (PASS) Success Legacy - Quality and Reliability Date

Science.gov (United States)

Orr, James K.; Peltier, Daryl

2010-01-01

Thsi slide presentation reviews the avionics software system on board the space shuttle, with particular emphasis on the quality and reliability. The Primary Avionics Software System (PASS) provides automatic and fly-by-wire control of critical shuttle systems which executes in redundant computers. Charts given show the number of space shuttle flights vs time, PASS's development history, and other charts that point to the reliability of the system's development. The reliability of the system is also compared to predicted reliability.

A Survey of Software Reliability Modeling and Estimation

Science.gov (United States)

1983-09-01

considered include: the Jelinski-Moranda Model, the ,Geometric Model,’ and Musa’s Model. A Monte -Carlo study of the behavior of the ’V"’"*least squares...ceedings Number 261, 1979, pp. 34-1, 34-11. IoelAmrit, AGieboSSukert, Alan and Goel, Ararat , "A Guidebookfor Software Reliability Assessment, 1980

Failure mode and effects analysis of software-based automation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haapanen, P.; Helminen, A.

2002-08-01

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is one of the well-known analysis methods having an established position in the traditional reliability analysis. The purpose of FMEA is to identify possible failure modes of the system components, evaluate their influences on system behaviour and propose proper countermeasures to suppress these effects. The generic nature of FMEA has enabled its wide use in various branches of industry reaching from business management to the design of spaceships. The popularity and diverse use of the analysis method has led to multiple interpretations, practices and standards presenting the same analysis method. FMEA is well understood at the systems and hardware levels, where the potential failure modes usually are known and the task is to analyse their effects on system behaviour. Nowadays, more and more system functions are realised on software level, which has aroused the urge to apply the FMEA methodology also on software based systems. Software failure modes generally are unknown - 'software modules do not fail, they only display incorrect behaviour' - and depend on dynamic behaviour of the application. These facts set special requirements on the FMEA of software based systems and make it difficult to realise. In this report the failure mode and effects analysis is studied for the use of reliability analysis of software-based systems. More precisely, the target system of FMEA is defined to be a safety-critical software-based automation application in a nuclear power plant, implemented on an industrial automation system platform. Through a literature study the report tries to clarify the intriguing questions related to the practical use of software failure mode and effects analysis. The study is a part of the research project 'Programmable Automation System Safety Integrity assessment (PASSI)', belonging to the Finnish Nuclear Safety Research Programme (FINNUS, 1999-2002). In the project various safety assessment methods and tools for

Reliability and validity of the AutoCAD software method in lumbar lordosis measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Letafatkar, Amir; Amirsasan, Ramin; Abdolvahabi, Zahra; Hadadnezhad, Malihe

2011-12-01

The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the AutoCAD software method in lumbar lordosis measurement. Fifty healthy volunteers with a mean age of 23 ± 1.80 years were enrolled. A lumbar lateral radiograph was taken on all participants, and the lordosis was measured according to the Cobb method. Afterward, the lumbar lordosis degree was measured via AutoCAD software and flexible ruler methods. The current study is accomplished in 2 parts: intratester and intertester evaluations of reliability as well as the validity of the flexible ruler and software methods. Based on the intraclass correlation coefficient, AutoCAD's reliability and validity in measuring lumbar lordosis were 0.984 and 0.962, respectively. AutoCAD showed to be a reliable and valid method to measure lordosis. It is suggested that this method may replace those that are costly and involve health risks, such as radiography, in evaluating lumbar lordosis.

Reliability design of the continuous monitoring system software for an position radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang Yuebing; Li Tiantuo; Di Yuming; Zhang Yanhong

2004-01-01

The reliability and stabilization is an important technical target for a continuous monitoring system. After analyzing the position's environment and the system's structure, we put forward some methods of the software's reliability design and put these into the application. The practice shows that it is important to improve the system's stability and reliability. (authors)

Reliability model analysis and primary experimental evaluation of laser triggered pulse trigger

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Debiao; Yang Xinglin; Li Yuan; Li Jin

2012-01-01

High performance pulse trigger can enhance performance and stability of the PPS. It is necessary to evaluate the reliability of the LTGS pulse trigger, so we establish the reliability analysis model of this pulse trigger based on CARMES software, the reliability evaluation is accord with the statistical results. (authors)

Software FMEA analysis for safety-related application software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Gee-Yong; Kim, Dong Hoon; Lee, Dong Young

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We develop a modified FMEA analysis suited for applying to software architecture. • A template for failure modes on a specific software language is established. • A detailed-level software FMEA analysis on nuclear safety software is presented. - Abstract: A method of a software safety analysis is described in this paper for safety-related application software. The target software system is a software code installed at an Automatic Test and Interface Processor (ATIP) in a digital reactor protection system (DRPS). For the ATIP software safety analysis, at first, an overall safety or hazard analysis is performed over the software architecture and modules, and then a detailed safety analysis based on the software FMEA (Failure Modes and Effect Analysis) method is applied to the ATIP program. For an efficient analysis, the software FMEA analysis is carried out based on the so-called failure-mode template extracted from the function blocks used in the function block diagram (FBD) for the ATIP software. The software safety analysis by the software FMEA analysis, being applied to the ATIP software code, which has been integrated and passed through a very rigorous system test procedure, is proven to be able to provide very valuable results (i.e., software defects) that could not be identified during various system tests

Verification and validation--The key to operating plant software reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daughtrey, H.T.; Daggett, P.W.; Schamp, C.A.

1983-01-01

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a verification and validation (V and V) plan for reviewing the microcomputer software developed for a Safety Parameter Display System (SPDS). Topics considered include a historical perspective on V and V, the function and significance of SPDS software, and testing. An SPDS provides information to nuclear power plant operators about the status of the plant under all operating conditions. It is determined that by implementing V and V activities throughout the development cycle, problems are less expensive to locate in the early phases of software development, problems are less expensive to fix in the early phases of software development, and a parallel V and V activity is more cost effective than a similar effort performed only at the end of software development. It is concluded that V and V is a proven tool for improving power plant software reliability

Reliability of infarct volumetry: Its relevance and the improvement by a software-assisted approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Friedländer, Felix; Bohmann, Ferdinand; Brunkhorst, Max; Chae, Ju-Hee; Devraj, Kavi; Köhler, Yvette; Kraft, Peter; Kuhn, Hannah; Lucaciu, Alexandra; Luger, Sebastian; Pfeilschifter, Waltraud; Sadler, Rebecca; Liesz, Arthur; Scholtyschik, Karolina; Stolz, Leonie; Vutukuri, Rajkumar; Brunkhorst, Robert

2017-08-01

Despite the efficacy of neuroprotective approaches in animal models of stroke, their translation has so far failed from bench to bedside. One reason is presumed to be a low quality of preclinical study design, leading to bias and a low a priori power. In this study, we propose that the key read-out of experimental stroke studies, the volume of the ischemic damage as commonly measured by free-handed planimetry of TTC-stained brain sections, is subject to an unrecognized low inter-rater and test-retest reliability with strong implications for statistical power and bias. As an alternative approach, we suggest a simple, open-source, software-assisted method, taking advantage of automatic-thresholding techniques. The validity and the improvement of reliability by an automated method to tMCAO infarct volumetry are demonstrated. In addition, we show the probable consequences of increased reliability for precision, p-values, effect inflation, and power calculation, exemplified by a systematic analysis of experimental stroke studies published in the year 2015. Our study reveals an underappreciated quality problem in translational stroke research and suggests that software-assisted infarct volumetry might help to improve reproducibility and therefore the robustness of bench to bedside translation.

ERP Reliability Analysis (ERA) Toolbox: An open-source toolbox for analyzing the reliability of event-related brain potentials.

Science.gov (United States)

Clayson, Peter E; Miller, Gregory A

2017-01-01

Generalizability theory (G theory) provides a flexible, multifaceted approach to estimating score reliability. G theory's approach to estimating score reliability has important advantages over classical test theory that are relevant for research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). For example, G theory does not require parallel forms (i.e., equal means, variances, and covariances), can handle unbalanced designs, and provides a single reliability estimate for designs with multiple sources of error. This monograph provides a detailed description of the conceptual framework of G theory using examples relevant to ERP researchers, presents the algorithms needed to estimate ERP score reliability, and provides a detailed walkthrough of newly-developed software, the ERP Reliability Analysis (ERA) Toolbox, that calculates score reliability using G theory. The ERA Toolbox is open-source, Matlab software that uses G theory to estimate the contribution of the number of trials retained for averaging, group, and/or event types on ERP score reliability. The toolbox facilitates the rigorous evaluation of psychometric properties of ERP scores recommended elsewhere in this special issue. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reliable and Fault-Tolerant Software-Defined Network Operations Scheme for Remote 3D Printing

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Dongkyun; Gil, Joon-Min

2015-03-01

The recent wide expansion of applicable three-dimensional (3D) printing and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies has led to a great deal of attention being focused on efficient remote control of manufacturing processes. SDN is a renowned paradigm for network softwarization, which has helped facilitate remote manufacturing in association with high network performance, since SDN is designed to control network paths and traffic flows, guaranteeing improved quality of services by obtaining network requests from end-applications on demand through the separated SDN controller or control plane. However, current SDN approaches are generally focused on the controls and automation of the networks, which indicates that there is a lack of management plane development designed for a reliable and fault-tolerant SDN environment. Therefore, in addition to the inherent advantage of SDN, this paper proposes a new software-defined network operations center (SD-NOC) architecture to strengthen the reliability and fault-tolerance of SDN in terms of network operations and management in particular. The cooperation and orchestration between SDN and SD-NOC are also introduced for the SDN failover processes based on four principal SDN breakdown scenarios derived from the failures of the controller, SDN nodes, and connected links. The abovementioned SDN troubles significantly reduce the network reachability to remote devices (e.g., 3D printers, super high-definition cameras, etc.) and the reliability of relevant control processes. Our performance consideration and analysis results show that the proposed scheme can shrink operations and management overheads of SDN, which leads to the enhancement of responsiveness and reliability of SDN for remote 3D printing and control processes.

Guidelines for reliability analysis of digital systems in PSA context. Phase 1 status report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Authen, S.; Larsson, J.; Bjoerkman, K.; Holmberg, J.-E.

2010-12-01

Digital protection and control systems are appearing as upgrades in older nuclear power plants (NPPs) and are commonplace in new NPPs. To assess the risk of NPP operation and to determine the risk impact of digital system upgrades on NPPs, quantitative reliability models are needed for digital systems. Due to the many unique attributes of these systems, challenges exist in systems analysis, modeling and in data collection. Currently there is no consensus on reliability analysis approaches. Traditional methods have clearly limitations, but more dynamic approaches are still in trial stage and can be difficult to apply in full scale probabilistic safety assessments (PSA). The number of PSAs worldwide including reliability models of digital I and C systems are few. A comparison of Nordic experiences and a literature review on main international references have been performed in this pre-study project. The study shows a wide range of approaches, and also indicates that no state-of-the-art currently exists. The study shows areas where the different PSAs agree and gives the basis for development of a common taxonomy for reliability analysis of digital systems. It is still an open matter whether software reliability needs to be explicitly modelled in the PSA. The most important issue concerning software reliability is proper descriptions of the impact that software-based systems has on the dependence between the safety functions and the structure of accident sequences. In general the conventional fault tree approach seems to be sufficient for modelling reactor protection system kind of functions. The following focus areas have been identified for further activities: 1. Common taxonomy of hardware and software failure modes of digital components for common use 2. Guidelines regarding level of detail in system analysis and screening of components, failure modes and dependencies 3. Approach for modelling of CCF between components (including software). (Author)

Guidelines for reliability analysis of digital systems in PSA context. Phase 1 status report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Authen, S.; Larsson, J. (Risk Pilot AB, Stockholm (Sweden)); Bjoerkman, K.; Holmberg, J.-E. (VTT, Helsingfors (Finland))

2010-12-15

Digital protection and control systems are appearing as upgrades in older nuclear power plants (NPPs) and are commonplace in new NPPs. To assess the risk of NPP operation and to determine the risk impact of digital system upgrades on NPPs, quantitative reliability models are needed for digital systems. Due to the many unique attributes of these systems, challenges exist in systems analysis, modeling and in data collection. Currently there is no consensus on reliability analysis approaches. Traditional methods have clearly limitations, but more dynamic approaches are still in trial stage and can be difficult to apply in full scale probabilistic safety assessments (PSA). The number of PSAs worldwide including reliability models of digital I and C systems are few. A comparison of Nordic experiences and a literature review on main international references have been performed in this pre-study project. The study shows a wide range of approaches, and also indicates that no state-of-the-art currently exists. The study shows areas where the different PSAs agree and gives the basis for development of a common taxonomy for reliability analysis of digital systems. It is still an open matter whether software reliability needs to be explicitly modelled in the PSA. The most important issue concerning software reliability is proper descriptions of the impact that software-based systems has on the dependence between the safety functions and the structure of accident sequences. In general the conventional fault tree approach seems to be sufficient for modelling reactor protection system kind of functions. The following focus areas have been identified for further activities: 1. Common taxonomy of hardware and software failure modes of digital components for common use 2. Guidelines regarding level of detail in system analysis and screening of components, failure modes and dependencies 3. Approach for modelling of CCF between components (including software). (Author)

HAZARD ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sommer, S; Tinh Tran, T.

2008-01-01

Washington Safety Management Solutions, LLC developed web-based software to improve the efficiency and consistency of hazard identification and analysis, control selection and classification, and to standardize analysis reporting at Savannah River Site. In the new nuclear age, information technology provides methods to improve the efficiency of the documented safety analysis development process which includes hazard analysis activities. This software provides a web interface that interacts with a relational database to support analysis, record data, and to ensure reporting consistency. A team of subject matter experts participated in a series of meetings to review the associated processes and procedures for requirements and standard practices. Through these meetings, a set of software requirements were developed and compiled into a requirements traceability matrix from which software could be developed. The software was tested to ensure compliance with the requirements. Training was provided to the hazard analysis leads. Hazard analysis teams using the software have verified its operability. The software has been classified as NQA-1, Level D, as it supports the analysis team but does not perform the analysis. The software can be transported to other sites with alternate risk schemes. The software is being used to support the development of 14 hazard analyses. User responses have been positive with a number of suggestions for improvement which are being incorporated as time permits. The software has enforced a uniform implementation of the site procedures. The software has significantly improved the efficiency and standardization of the hazard analysis process

Test rig overview for validation and reliability testing of shutdown system software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, M.; McDonald, A.; Dick, P.

2007-01-01

The test rig for Validation and Reliability Testing of shutdown system software has been upgraded from the AECL Windows-based test rig previously used for CANDU6 stations. It includes a Virtual Trip Computer, which is a software simulation of the functional specification of the trip computer, and a real-time trip computer simulator in a separate chassis, which is used during the preparation of trip computer test cases before the actual trip computers are available. This allows preparation work for Validation and Reliability Testing to be performed in advance of delivery of actual trip computers to maintain a project schedule. (author)

Software hazard analysis for nuclear digital protection system by Colored Petri Net

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bai, Tao; Chen, Wei-Hua; Liu, Zhen; Gao, Feng

2017-01-01

Highlights: •A dynamic hazard analysis method is proposed for the safety-critical software. •The mechanism relies on Colored Petri Net. •Complex interactions between software and hardware are captured properly. •Common failure mode in software are identified effectively. -- Abstract: The software safety of a nuclear digital protection system is critical for the safety of nuclear power plants as any software defect may result in severe damage. In order to ensure the safety and reliability of safety-critical digital system products and their applications, software hazard analysis is required to be performed during the lifecycle of software development. The dynamic software hazard modeling and analysis method based on Colored Petri Net is proposed and applied to the safety-critical control software of the nuclear digital protection system in this paper. The analysis results show that the proposed method can explain the complex interactions between software and hardware and identify the potential common cause failure in software properly and effectively. Moreover, the method can find the dominant software induced hazard to safety control actions, which aids in increasing software quality.

Nurturing reliable and robust open-source scientific software

Science.gov (United States)

Uieda, L.; Wessel, P.

2017-12-01

(zenodo.org). However, citations to these sources are not always recognized when computing citation metrics. In summary, the widespread development of reliable and robust open-source software relies on the creation of formal training programs in software development best practices and the recognition of software as a valid form of scholarship.

Techniques to maximize software reliability in radiation fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eichhorn, G.; Piercey, R.B.

1986-01-01

Microprocessor system failures due to memory corruption by single event upsets (SEUs) and/or latch-up in RAM or ROM memory are common in environments where there is high radiation flux. Traditional methods to harden microcomputer systems against SEUs and memory latch-up have usually involved expensive large scale hardware redundancy. Such systems offer higher reliability, but they tend to be more complex and non-standard. At the Space Astronomy Laboratory the authors have developed general programming techniques for producing software which is resistant to such memory failures. These techniques, which may be applied to standard off-the-shelf hardware, as well as custom designs, include an implementation of Maximally Redundant Software (MRS) model, error detection algorithms and memory verification and management

Machine Learning Approach for Software Reliability Growth Modeling with Infinite Testing Effort Function

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subburaj Ramasamy

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Reliability is one of the quantifiable software quality attributes. Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs are used to assess the reliability achieved at different times of testing. Traditional time-based SRGMs may not be accurate enough in all situations where test effort varies with time. To overcome this lacuna, test effort was used instead of time in SRGMs. In the past, finite test effort functions were proposed, which may not be realistic as, at infinite testing time, test effort will be infinite. Hence in this paper, we propose an infinite test effort function in conjunction with a classical Nonhomogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP model. We use Artificial Neural Network (ANN for training the proposed model with software failure data. Here it is possible to get a large set of weights for the same model to describe the past failure data equally well. We use machine learning approach to select the appropriate set of weights for the model which will describe both the past and the future data well. We compare the performance of the proposed model with existing model using practical software failure data sets. The proposed log-power TEF based SRGM describes all types of failure data equally well and also improves the accuracy of parameter estimation more than existing TEF and can be used for software release time determination as well.

Assuring Software Reliability

Science.gov (United States)

2014-08-01

technologies and processes to achieve a required level of confidence that software systems and services function in the intended manner. 1.3 Security Example...that took three high-voltage lines out of service and a software fail- ure (a race condition3) that disabled the computing service that notified the... service had failed. Instead of analyzing the details of the alarm server failure, the reviewers asked why the following software assurance claim had

NuFTA: A CASE Tool for Automatic Software Fault Tree Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yun, Sang Hyun; Lee, Dong Ah; Yoo, Jun Beom

2010-01-01

Software fault tree analysis (SFTA) is widely used for analyzing software requiring high-reliability. In SFTA, experts predict failures of system through HA-ZOP (Hazard and Operability study) or FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) and draw software fault trees about the failures. Quality and cost of the software fault tree, therefore, depend on knowledge and experience of the experts. This paper proposes a CASE tool NuFTA in order to assist experts of safety analysis. The NuFTA automatically generate software fault trees from NuSCR formal requirements specification. NuSCR is a formal specification language used for specifying software requirements of KNICS RPS (Reactor Protection System) in Korea. We used the SFTA templates proposed by in order to generate SFTA automatically. The NuFTA also generates logical formulae summarizing the failure's cause, and we have a plan to use the formulae usefully through formal verification techniques

Digital Processor Module Reliability Analysis of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Yong; Jung, Jae Hyun; Kim, Jae Ho; Kim, Sung Hun

2005-01-01

The system used in plant, military equipment, satellite, etc. consists of many electronic parts as control module, which requires relatively high reliability than other commercial electronic products. Specially, Nuclear power plant related to the radiation safety requires high safety and reliability, so most parts apply to Military-Standard level. Reliability prediction method provides the rational basis of system designs and also provides the safety significance of system operations. Thus various reliability prediction tools have been developed in recent decades, among of them, the MI-HDBK-217 method has been widely used as a powerful tool for the prediction. In this work, It is explained that reliability analysis work for Digital Processor Module (DPM, control module of SMART) is performed by Parts Stress Method based on MIL-HDBK-217F NOTICE2. We are using the Relex 7.6 of Relex software corporation, because reliability analysis process requires enormous part libraries and data for failure rate calculation

Software reliability assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, M.; Bradley, P.A.; Brewer, M.A.

1994-01-01

The increased usage and sophistication of computers applied to real time safety-related systems in the United Kingdom has spurred on the desire to provide a standard framework within which to assess dependable computing systems. Recent accidents and ensuing legislation have acted as a catalyst in this area. One particular aspect of dependable computing systems is that of software, which is usually designed to reduce risk at the system level, but which can increase risk if it is unreliable. Various organizations have recognized the problem of assessing the risk imposed to the system by unreliable software, and have taken initial steps to develop and use such assessment frameworks. This paper relates the approach of Consultancy Services of AEA Technology in developing a framework to assess the risk imposed by unreliable software. In addition, the paper discusses the experiences gained by Consultancy Services in applying the assessment framework to commercial and research projects. The framework is applicable to software used in safety applications, including proprietary software. Although the paper is written with Nuclear Reactor Safety applications in mind, the principles discussed can be applied to safety applications in all industries

Discrete Address Beacon System (DABS) Software System Reliability Modeling and Prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-06-01

Service ( ATARS ) module because of its interim status. Reliability prediction models for software modules were derived and then verified by matching...System (A’iCR3BS) and thus can be introduced gradually and economically without ma jor olper- ational or procedural change. Since DABS uses monopulse...lineanaly- sis tools or are ured during maintenance or pre-initialization were not modeled because they are not part of the mission software. The ATARS

Distribution System Reliability Analysis for Smart Grid Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Aljohani, Tawfiq Masad

Reliability of power systems is a key aspect in modern power system planning, design, and operation. The ascendance of the smart grid concept has provided high hopes of developing an intelligent network that is capable of being a self-healing grid, offering the ability to overcome the interruption problems that face the utility and cost it tens of millions in repair and loss. To address its reliability concerns, the power utilities and interested parties have spent extensive amount of time and effort to analyze and study the reliability of the generation and transmission sectors of the power grid. Only recently has attention shifted to be focused on improving the reliability of the distribution network, the connection joint between the power providers and the consumers where most of the electricity problems occur. In this work, we will examine the effect of the smart grid applications in improving the reliability of the power distribution networks. The test system used in conducting this thesis is the IEEE 34 node test feeder, released in 2003 by the Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee of the IEEE Power Engineering Society. The objective is to analyze the feeder for the optimal placement of the automatic switching devices and quantify their proper installation based on the performance of the distribution system. The measures will be the changes in the reliability system indices including SAIDI, SAIFI, and EUE. The goal is to design and simulate the effect of the installation of the Distributed Generators (DGs) on the utility's distribution system and measure the potential improvement of its reliability. The software used in this work is DISREL, which is intelligent power distribution software that is developed by General Reliability Co.

STEM - software test and evaluation methods: fault detection using static analysis techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bishop, P.G.; Esp, D.G.

1988-08-01

STEM is a software reliability project with the objective of evaluating a number of fault detection and fault estimation methods which can be applied to high integrity software. This Report gives some interim results of applying both manual and computer-based static analysis techniques, in particular SPADE, to an early CERL version of the PODS software containing known faults. The main results of this study are that: The scope for thorough verification is determined by the quality of the design documentation; documentation defects become especially apparent when verification is attempted. For well-defined software, the thoroughness of SPADE-assisted verification for detecting a large class of faults was successfully demonstrated. For imprecisely-defined software (not recommended for high-integrity systems) the use of tools such as SPADE is difficult and inappropriate. Analysis and verification tools are helpful, through their reliability and thoroughness. However, they are designed to assist, not replace, a human in validating software. Manual inspection can still reveal errors (such as errors in specification and errors of transcription of systems constants) which current tools cannot detect. There is a need for tools to automatically detect typographical errors in system constants, for example by reporting outliers to patterns. To obtain the maximum benefit from advanced tools, they should be applied during software development (when verification problems can be detected and corrected) rather than retrospectively. (author)

Validity and reliability of balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii balance board: usability and validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Dae-Sung; Lee, GyuChang

2014-06-10

A balance test provides important information such as the standard to judge an individual's functional recovery or make the prediction of falls. The development of a tool for a balance test that is inexpensive and widely available is needed, especially in clinical settings. The Wii Balance Board (WBB) is designed to test balance, but there is little software used in balance tests, and there are few studies on reliability and validity. Thus, we developed a balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board, investigated its reliability and validity, and compared it with a laboratory-grade force platform. Twenty healthy adults participated in our study. The participants participated in the test for inter-rater reliability, intra-rater reliability, and concurrent validity. The tests were performed with balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii balance board and a laboratory-grade force platform. Data such as Center of Pressure (COP) path length and COP velocity were acquired from the assessment systems. The inter-rater reliability, the intra-rater reliability, and concurrent validity were analyzed by an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value and a standard error of measurement (SEM). The inter-rater reliability (ICC: 0.89-0.79, SEM in path length: 7.14-1.90, SEM in velocity: 0.74-0.07), intra-rater reliability (ICC: 0.92-0.70, SEM in path length: 7.59-2.04, SEM in velocity: 0.80-0.07), and concurrent validity (ICC: 0.87-0.73, SEM in path length: 5.94-0.32, SEM in velocity: 0.62-0.08) were high in terms of COP path length and COP velocity. The balance assessment software incorporating the Nintendo Wii balance board was used in our study and was found to be a reliable assessment device. In clinical settings, the device can be remarkably inexpensive, portable, and convenient for the balance assessment.

Extending Failure Modes and Effects Analysis Approach for Reliability Analysis at the Software Architecture Design Level

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sözer, Hasan; Tekinerdogan, B.; Aksit, Mehmet; de Lemos, Rogerio; Gacek, Cristina

2007-01-01

Several reliability engineering approaches have been proposed to identify and recover from failures. A well-known and mature approach is the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) method that is usually utilized together with Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) to analyze and diagnose the causes of failures.

Survey of bayesian belif nets for quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software used in nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eom, H.S.; Sung, T.Y.; Jeong, H.S.; Park, J.H.; Kang, H.G.; Lee, K

2001-03-01

As part of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment of safety grade digital systems used in Nuclear Power plants research, measures and methodologies applicable to quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software were surveyed. Among the techniques proposed in the literature we selected those which are in use widely and investigated their limitations in quantitative software reliability assessment. One promising methodology from the survey is Bayesian Belief Nets (BBN) which has a formalism and can combine various disparate evidences relevant to reliability into final decision under uncertainty. Thus we analyzed BBN and its application cases in digital systems assessment area and finally studied the possibility of its application to the quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software.

Survey of bayesian belif nets for quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software used in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, H. S.; Sung, T. Y.; Jeong, H. S.; Park, J. H.; Kang, H. G.; Lee, K.

2001-03-01

As part of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment of safety grade digital systems used in Nuclear Power plants research, measures and methodologies applicable to quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software were surveyed. Among the techniques proposed in the literature we selected those which are in use widely and investigated their limitations in quantitative software reliability assessment. One promising methodology from the survey is Bayesian Belief Nets (BBN) which has a formalism and can combine various disparate evidences relevant to reliability into final decision under uncertainty. Thus we analyzed BBN and its application cases in digital systems assessment area and finally studied the possibility of its application to the quantitative reliability assessment of safety critical software

Development of RBDGG Solver and Its Application to System Reliability Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol

2010-01-01

For the purpose of making system reliability analysis easier and more intuitive, RBDGG (Reliability Block diagram with General Gates) methodology was introduced as an extension of the conventional reliability block diagram. The advantage of the RBDGG methodology is that the structure of a RBDGG model is very similar to the actual structure of the analyzed system, and therefore the modeling of a system for system reliability and unavailability analysis becomes very intuitive and easy. The main idea of the development of the RBDGG methodology is similar with that of the development of the RGGG (Reliability Graph with General Gates) methodology, which is an extension of a conventional reliability graph. The newly proposed methodology is now implemented into a software tool, RBDGG Solver. RBDGG Solver was developed as a WIN32 console application. RBDGG Solver receives information on the failure modes and failure probabilities of each component in the system, along with the connection structure and connection logics among the components in the system. Based on the received information, RBDGG Solver automatically generates a system reliability analysis model for the system, and then provides the analysis results. In this paper, application of RBDGG Solver to the reliability analysis of an example system, and verification of the calculation results are provided for the purpose of demonstrating how RBDGG Solver is used for system reliability analysis

Confirmatory Factor Analysis Alternative: Free, Accessible CBID Software.

Science.gov (United States)

Bott, Marjorie; Karanevich, Alex G; Garrard, Lili; Price, Larry R; Mudaranthakam, Dinesh Pal; Gajewski, Byron

2018-02-01

New software that performs Classical and Bayesian Instrument Development (CBID) is reported that seamlessly integrates expert (content validity) and participant data (construct validity) to produce entire reliability estimates with smaller sample requirements. The free CBID software can be accessed through a website and used by clinical investigators in new instrument development. Demonstrations are presented of the three approaches using the CBID software: (a) traditional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), (b) Bayesian CFA using flat uninformative prior, and (c) Bayesian CFA using content expert data (informative prior). Outcomes of usability testing demonstrate the need to make the user-friendly, free CBID software available to interdisciplinary researchers. CBID has the potential to be a new and expeditious method for instrument development, adding to our current measurement toolbox. This allows for the development of new instruments for measuring determinants of health in smaller diverse populations or populations of rare diseases.

Reliability analysis for Atucha II reactor protection system signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roca, Jose Luis

1996-01-01

Atucha II is a 745 MW Argentine Power Nuclear Reactor constructed by ENACE SA, Nuclear Argentine Company for Electrical Power Generation and SIEMENS AG KWU, Erlangen, Germany. A preliminary modular logic analysis of RPS (Reactor Protection System) signals was performed by means of the well known Swedish professional risk and reliability software named Risk-Spectrum taking as a basis a reference signal coded as JR17ER003 which command the two moderator loops valves. From the reliability and behavior knowledge for this reference signal follows an estimation of the reliability for the other 97 RPS signals. Because the preliminary character of this analysis Main Important Measures are not performed at this stage. Reliability is by the statistic value named unavailability predicted. The scope of this analysis is restricted from the measurement elements to the RPS buffer outputs. In the present context only one redundancy is analyzed so in the Instrumentation and Control area there no CCF (Common Cause Failures) present for signals. Finally those unavailability values could be introduced in the failure domain for the posterior complete Atucha II reliability analysis which includes all mechanical and electromechanical features. Also an estimation of the spurious frequency of RPS signals defined as faulty by no trip is performed

Reliability analysis for Atucha II reactor protection system signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roca, Jose L.

2000-01-01

Atucha II is a 745 MW Argentine power nuclear reactor constructed by Nuclear Argentine Company for Electric Power Generation S.A. (ENACE S.A.) and SIEMENS AG KWU, Erlangen, Germany. A preliminary modular logic analysis of RPS (Reactor Protection System) signals was performed by means of the well known Swedish professional risk and reliability software named Risk-Spectrum taking as a basis a reference signal coded as JR17ER003 which command the two moderator loops valves. From the reliability and behavior knowledge for this reference signal follows an estimation of the reliability for the other 97 RPS signals. Because the preliminary character of this analysis Main Important Measures are not performed at this stage. Reliability is by the statistic value named unavailability predicted. The scope of this analysis is restricted from the measurement elements to the RPS buffer outputs. In the present context only one redundancy is analyzed so in the Instrumentation and Control area there no CCF (Common Cause Failures) present for signals. Finally those unavailability values could be introduced in the failure domain for the posterior complete Atucha II reliability analysis which includes all mechanical and electromechanical features. Also an estimation of the spurious frequency of RPS signals defined as faulty by no trip is performed. (author)

Model reliability and software quality assurance in simulation of nuclear fuel waste management systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oeren, T.I.; Elzas, M.S.; Sheng, G.; Wageningen Agricultural Univ., Netherlands; McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario)

1985-01-01

As is the case with all scientific simulation studies, computerized simulation of nuclear fuel waste management systems can introduce and hide various types of errors. Frameworks to clarify issues of model reliability and software quality assurance are offered. Potential problems with reference to the main areas of concern for reliability and quality are discussed; e.g., experimental issues, decomposition, scope, fidelity, verification, requirements, testing, correctness, robustness are treated with reference to the experience gained in the past. A list comprising over 80 most common computerization errors is provided. Software tools and techniques used to detect and to correct computerization errors are discussed

Application of a methodology for the development and validation of reliable process control software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramamoorthy, C.V.; Mok, Y.R.; Bastani, F.B.; Chin, G.

1980-01-01

The necessity of a good methodology for the development of reliable software, especially with respect to the final software validation and testing activities, is discussed. A formal specification development and validation methodology is proposed. This methodology has been applied to the development and validation of a pilot software, incorporating typical features of critical software for nuclear power plants safety protection. The main features of the approach include the use of a formal specification language and the independent development of two sets of specifications. 1 ref

BurnCase 3D software validation study: Burn size measurement accuracy and inter-rater reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Parvizi, Daryousch; Giretzlehner, Michael; Wurzer, Paul; Klein, Limor Dinur; Shoham, Yaron; Bohanon, Fredrick J; Haller, Herbert L; Tuca, Alexandru; Branski, Ludwik K; Lumenta, David B; Herndon, David N; Kamolz, Lars-P

2016-03-01

The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of burn size estimation using the computer-assisted software BurnCase 3D (RISC Software GmbH, Hagenberg, Austria) with that using a 2D scan, considered to be the actual burn size. Thirty artificial burn areas were pre planned and prepared on three mannequins (one child, one female, and one male). Five trained physicians (raters) were asked to assess the size of all wound areas using BurnCase 3D software. The results were then compared with the real wound areas, as determined by 2D planimetry imaging. To examine inter-rater reliability, we performed an intraclass correlation analysis with a 95% confidence interval. The mean wound area estimations of the five raters using BurnCase 3D were in total 20.7±0.9% for the child, 27.2±1.5% for the female and 16.5±0.1% for the male mannequin. Our analysis showed relative overestimations of 0.4%, 2.8% and 1.5% for the child, female and male mannequins respectively, compared to the 2D scan. The intraclass correlation between the single raters for mean percentage of the artificial burn areas was 98.6%. There was also a high intraclass correlation between the single raters and the 2D Scan visible. BurnCase 3D is a valid and reliable tool for the determination of total body surface area burned in standard models. Further clinical studies including different pediatric and overweight adult mannequins are warranted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Software for computerised analysis of cardiotocographic traces.

Science.gov (United States)

Romano, M; Bifulco, P; Ruffo, M; Improta, G; Clemente, F; Cesarelli, M

2016-02-01

Despite the widespread use of cardiotocography in foetal monitoring, the evaluation of foetal status suffers from a considerable inter and intra-observer variability. In order to overcome the main limitations of visual cardiotocographic assessment, computerised methods to analyse cardiotocographic recordings have been recently developed. In this study, a new software for automated analysis of foetal heart rate is presented. It allows an automatic procedure for measuring the most relevant parameters derivable from cardiotocographic traces. Simulated and real cardiotocographic traces were analysed to test software reliability. In artificial traces, we simulated a set number of events (accelerations, decelerations and contractions) to be recognised. In the case of real signals, instead, results of the computerised analysis were compared with the visual assessment performed by 18 expert clinicians and three performance indexes were computed to gain information about performances of the proposed software. The software showed preliminary performance we judged satisfactory in that the results matched completely the requirements, as proved by tests on artificial signals in which all simulated events were detected from the software. Performance indexes computed in comparison with obstetricians' evaluations are, on the contrary, not so satisfactory; in fact they led to obtain the following values of the statistical parameters: sensitivity equal to 93%, positive predictive value equal to 82% and accuracy equal to 77%. Very probably this arises from the high variability of trace annotation carried out by clinicians. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

REVEAL - A tool for rule driven analysis of safety critical software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miedl, H.; Kersken, M.

1998-01-01

As the determination of ultrahigh reliability figures for safety critical software is hardly possible, national and international guidelines and standards give mainly requirements for the qualitative evaluation of software. An analysis whether all these requirements are fulfilled is time and effort consuming and prone to errors, if performed manually by analysts, and should instead be dedicated to tools as far as possible. There are many ''general-purpose'' software analysis tools, both static and dynamic, which help analyzing the source code. However, they are not designed to assess the adherence to specific requirements of guidelines and standards in the nuclear field. Against the background of the development of I and C systems in the nuclear field which are based on digital techniques and implemented in high level language, it is essential that the assessor or licenser has a tool with which he can automatically and uniformly qualify as many aspects as possible of the high level language software. For this purpose the software analysis tool REVEAL has been developed at ISTec and the Halden Reactor Project. (author)

Assessing software quality at each step of its life-cycle to enhance reliability of control systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardion, V.; Buteau, A.; Leclercq, N.; Abeille, G.; Pierre-Joseph, Z.; Le, S.

2012-01-01

A distributed software control system aims to enhance the upgrade ability and reliability by sharing responsibility between several components. The disadvantage is that it makes it harder to detect problems on a significant number of modules. With Kaizen in mind we have chosen to continuously invest in automation to obtain a complete overview of software quality despite the growth of legacy code. The development process has already been mastered by staging each life-cycle step thanks to a continuous integration server based on JENKINS and MAVEN. We enhanced this process, focusing on 3 objectives: Automatic Test, Static Code Analysis and Post-Mortem Supervision. Now, the build process automatically includes a test section to detect regressions, incorrect behaviour and integration incompatibility. The in-house TANGOUNIT project satisfies the difficulties of testing distributed components such as Tango Devices. In the next step, the programming code has to pass a complete code quality check-up. The SONAR quality server has been integrated in the process, to collect each static code analysis and display the hot topics on summary web pages. Finally, the integration of Google BREAKPAD in every TANGO Devices gives us essential statistics from crash reports and enables us to replay the crash scenarios at any time. We have already gained greater visibility on current developments. Some concrete results will be presented including reliability enhancement, better management of subcontracted software development, quicker adoption of coding standards by new developers and understanding of impacts when moving to a new technology. (authors)

Experimental analysis of specification language diversity impact on NPP software diversity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Chang Sik

1999-02-01

In order to increase computer system reliability, software fault tolerance methods have been adopted to some safety critical systems including NPP. Prevention of software common mode failure is very crucial problem in software fault tolerance, but the effective method for this problem is not found yet. In our research, to find out an effective method for prevention of software common mode failure, the impact of specification language diversity on NPP software diversity was examined experimentally. Three specification languages were used to compose three requirements specifications, and programmers made twelve product codes from the specifications. From the product codes analysis, using fault diversity criteria, we concluded that diverse specification language method would enhance program diversity through diversification of requirements specification imperfections

Reliable software systems via chains of object models with provably correct behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yakhnis, A.; Yakhnis, V.

1996-01-01

This work addresses specification and design of reliable safety-critical systems, such as nuclear reactor control systems. Reliability concerns are addressed in complimentary fashion by different fields. Reliability engineers build software reliability models, etc. Safety engineers focus on prevention of potential harmful effects of systems on environment. Software/hardware correctness engineers focus on production of reliable systems on the basis of mathematical proofs. The authors think that correctness may be a crucial guiding issue in the development of reliable safety-critical systems. However, purely formal approaches are not adequate for the task, because they neglect the connection with the informal customer requirements. They alleviate that as follows. First, on the basis of the requirements, they build a model of the system interactions with the environment, where the system is viewed as a black box. They will provide foundations for automated tools which will (a) demonstrate to the customer that all of the scenarios of system behavior are presented in the model, (b) uncover scenarios not present in the requirements, and (c) uncover inconsistent scenarios. The developers will work with the customer until the black box model will not possess scenarios (b) and (c) above. Second, the authors will build a chain of several increasingly detailed models, where the first model is the black box model and the last model serves to automatically generated proved executable code. The behavior of each model will be proved to conform to the behavior of the previous one. They build each model as a cluster of interactive concurrent objects, thus they allow both top-down and bottom-up development

Development of advanced methods and related software for human reliability evaluation within probabilistic safety analyses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosmowski, K.T.; Mertens, J.; Degen, G.; Reer, B.

1994-06-01

Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) is an important part of Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA). The first part of this report consists of an overview of types of human behaviour and human error including the effect of significant performance shaping factors on human reliability. Particularly with regard to safety assessments for nuclear power plants a lot of HRA methods have been developed. The most important of these methods are presented and discussed in the report, together with techniques for incorporating HRA into PSA and with models of operator cognitive behaviour. Based on existing HRA methods the concept of a software system is described. For the development of this system the utilization of modern programming tools is proposed; the essential goal is the effective application of HRA methods. A possible integration of computeraided HRA within PSA is discussed. The features of Expert System Technology and examples of applications (PSA, HRA) are presented in four appendices. (orig.) [de

OSS reliability measurement and assessment

CERN Document Server

Yamada, Shigeru

2016-01-01

This book analyses quantitative open source software (OSS) reliability assessment and its applications, focusing on three major topic areas: the Fundamentals of OSS Quality/Reliability Measurement and Assessment; the Practical Applications of OSS Reliability Modelling; and Recent Developments in OSS Reliability Modelling. Offering an ideal reference guide for graduate students and researchers in reliability for open source software (OSS) and modelling, the book introduces several methods of reliability assessment for OSS including component-oriented reliability analysis based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytic network process (ANP), and non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models, the stochastic differential equation models and hazard rate models. These measurement and management technologies are essential to producing and maintaining quality/reliable systems using OSS.

Human reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dougherty, E.M.; Fragola, J.R.

1988-01-01

The authors present a treatment of human reliability analysis incorporating an introduction to probabilistic risk assessment for nuclear power generating stations. They treat the subject according to the framework established for general systems theory. Draws upon reliability analysis, psychology, human factors engineering, and statistics, integrating elements of these fields within a systems framework. Provides a history of human reliability analysis, and includes examples of the application of the systems approach

In search of cost-effective, reliable software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naser, J.A.; Bhatt, S.C.

1992-01-01

Considerable effort is ongoing to utilize the strengths of digital technology to upgrade and add functionality to existing systems and to develop solutions to problems in the nuclear industry. Acceptance of digital solutions requires verification and validation activities to ensure the reliability and acceptance of these solutions. EPRI has an ongoing effort to develop a methodology for verification and validation of digital control systems. Also, a joint project between the NRC and EPRI is developing a methodology for expert system verification and validation. To obtain a wider acceptance of digital system solutions and hence the utilization of verification and validation techniques, cost effective methods for design, development and verification and validation are needed. EPRI is leading an effort to develop methods for cost effective verification and validation for all types of software

Software architecture analysis tool : software architecture metrics collection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Muskens, J.; Chaudron, M.R.V.; Westgeest, R.

2002-01-01

The Software Engineering discipline lacks the ability to evaluate software architectures. Here we describe a tool for software architecture analysis that is based on metrics. Metrics can be used to detect possible problems and bottlenecks in software architectures. Even though metrics do not give a

Preparation of methodology for reliability analysis of selected digital segments of the instrumentation and control systems of NPPs. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hustak, S.; Patrik, M.; Babic, P.

2000-12-01

The report is structured as follows: (i) Introduction; (ii) Important notions relating to the safety and dependability of software systems for nuclear power plants (selected notions from IAEA Technical Report No. 397; safety aspects of software application; reliability/dependability aspects of digital systems); (iii) Peculiarities of digital systems and ways to a dependable performance of the required function (failures in the system and principles of defence against them; ensuring resistance of digital systems against failures at various hardware and software levels); (iv) The issue of analytical procedures to assess the safety and reliability of safety-related digital systems (safety and reliability assessment at an early stage of the project; general framework of reliability analysis of complex systems; choice of an appropriate quantitative measure of software reliability); (v) Selected qualitative and quantitative information about the reliability of digital systems; the use of relations between the incidence of various types of faults); and (vi) Conclusions and recommendations. (P.A.)

Usage models in reliability assessment of software-based systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haapanen, P.; Pulkkinen, U. [VTT Automation, Espoo (Finland); Korhonen, J. [VTT Electronics, Espoo (Finland)

1997-04-01

This volume in the OHA-project report series deals with the statistical reliability assessment of software based systems on the basis of dynamic test results and qualitative evidence from the system design process. Other reports to be published later on in the OHA-project report series will handle the diversity requirements in safety critical software-based systems, generation of test data from operational profiles and handling of programmable automation in plant PSA-studies. In this report the issues related to the statistical testing and especially automated test case generation are considered. The goal is to find an efficient method for building usage models for the generation of statistically significant set of test cases and to gather practical experiences from this method by applying it in a case study. The scope of the study also includes the tool support for the method, as the models may grow quite large and complex. (32 refs., 30 figs.).

Usage models in reliability assessment of software-based systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haapanen, P.; Pulkkinen, U.; Korhonen, J.

1997-04-01

This volume in the OHA-project report series deals with the statistical reliability assessment of software based systems on the basis of dynamic test results and qualitative evidence from the system design process. Other reports to be published later on in the OHA-project report series will handle the diversity requirements in safety critical software-based systems, generation of test data from operational profiles and handling of programmable automation in plant PSA-studies. In this report the issues related to the statistical testing and especially automated test case generation are considered. The goal is to find an efficient method for building usage models for the generation of statistically significant set of test cases and to gather practical experiences from this method by applying it in a case study. The scope of the study also includes the tool support for the method, as the models may grow quite large and complex. (32 refs., 30 figs.)

Comparison of two three-dimensional cephalometric analysis computer software.

Science.gov (United States)

Sawchuk, Dena; Alhadlaq, Adel; Alkhadra, Thamer; Carlyle, Terry D; Kusnoto, Budi; El-Bialy, Tarek

2014-10-01

Three-dimensional cephalometric analyses are getting more attraction in orthodontics. The aim of this study was to compare two softwares to evaluate three-dimensional cephalometric analyses of orthodontic treatment outcomes. Twenty cone beam computed tomography images were obtained using i-CAT(®) imaging system from patient's records as part of their regular orthodontic records. The images were analyzed using InVivoDental5.0 (Anatomage Inc.) and 3DCeph™ (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA) software. Before and after orthodontic treatments data were analyzed using t-test. Reliability test using interclass correlation coefficient was stronger for InVivoDental5.0 (0.83-0.98) compared with 3DCeph™ (0.51-0.90). Paired t-test comparison of the two softwares shows no statistical significant difference in the measurements made in the two softwares. InVivoDental5.0 measurements are more reproducible and user friendly when compared to 3DCeph™. No statistical difference between the two softwares in linear or angular measurements. 3DCeph™ is more time-consuming in performing three-dimensional analysis compared with InVivoDental5.0.

An Embedded System for Safe, Secure and Reliable Execution of High Consequence Software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

MCCOY,JAMES A.

2000-08-29

As more complex and functionally diverse requirements are placed on high consequence embedded applications, ensuring safe and secure operation requires an execution environment that is ultra reliable from a system viewpoint. In many cases the safety and security of the system depends upon the reliable cooperation between the hardware and the software to meet real-time system throughput requirements. The selection of a microprocessor and its associated development environment for an embedded application has the most far-reaching effects on the development and production of the system than any other element in the design. The effects of this choice ripple through the remainder of the hardware design and profoundly affect the entire software development process. While state-of-the-art software engineering principles indicate that an object oriented (OO) methodology provides a superior development environment, traditional programming languages available for microprocessors targeted for deeply embedded applications do not directly support OO techniques. Furthermore, the microprocessors themselves do not typically support nor do they enforce an OO environment. This paper describes a system level approach for the design of a microprocessor intended for use in deeply embedded high consequence applications that both supports and enforces an OO execution environment.

Determining Reliability and Validity of the Persian Version of Software Usability Measurements Inventory (SUMI) Questionnaire

OpenAIRE

seyed abolfazl zakerian; Roya Azizi; Mehdi Rahgozar

2013-01-01

The term usability refers to a special index for success of an operating system. This study aimed to determine the reliability and validity of the Software Usability Measurements Inventory (SUMI) questionnaire as one of the valid and common questionnaires about usability evaluation. The back translation method was used to translate the questionnaire from English to Persian back to English. Moreover, repeatability or test-retest reliability was practically used to determine the reliability of ...

Assessing the performance of commercial Agisoft PhotoScan software to deliver reliable data for accurate3D modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jebur Ahmed

2018-01-01

Full Text Available 3D models delivered from digital photogrammetric techniques have massively increased and developed to meet the requirements of many applications. The reliability of these models is basically dependent on the data processing cycle and the adopted tool solution in addition to data quality. Agisoft PhotoScan is a professional image-based 3D modelling software, which seeks to create orderly, precise n 3D content from fixed images. It works with arbitrary images those qualified in both controlled and uncontrolled conditions. Following the recommendations of many users all around the globe, Agisoft PhotoScan, has become an important source to generate precise 3D data for different applications. How reliable is this data for accurate 3D modelling applications is the current question that needs an answer. Therefore; in this paper, the performance of the Agisoft PhotoScan software was assessed and analyzed to show the potential of the software for accurate 3D modelling applications. To investigate this, a study was carried out in the University of Baghdad / Al-Jaderia campus using data collected from airborne metric camera with 457m flying height. The Agisoft results show potential according to the research objective and the dataset quality following statistical and validation shape analysis.

Using Statistical Analysis Software to Advance Nitro Plasticizer Wettability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shear, Trevor Allan [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-08-29

Statistical analysis in science is an extremely powerful tool that is often underutilized. Additionally, it is frequently the case that data is misinterpreted or not used to its fullest extent. Utilizing the advanced software JMP®, many aspects of experimental design and data analysis can be evaluated and improved. This overview will detail the features of JMP® and how they were used to advance a project, resulting in time and cost savings, as well as the collection of scientifically sound data. The project analyzed in this report addresses the inability of a nitro plasticizer to coat a gold coated quartz crystal sensor used in a quartz crystal microbalance. Through the use of the JMP® software, the wettability of the nitro plasticizer was increased by over 200% using an atmospheric plasma pen, ensuring good sample preparation and reliable results.

An integrated model for reliability estimation of digital nuclear protection system based on fault tree and software control flow methodologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol; Seong, Poong Hyun

2000-01-01

In the nuclear industry, the difficulty of proving the reliabilities of digital systems prohibits the widespread use of digital systems in various nuclear application such as plant protection system. Even though there exist a few models which are used to estimate the reliabilities of digital systems, we develop a new integrated model which is more realistic than the existing models. We divide the process of estimating the reliability of a digital system into two phases, a high-level phase and a low-level phase, and the boundary of two phases is the reliabilities of subsystems. We apply software control flow method to the low-level phase and fault tree analysis to the high-level phase. The application of the model to Dynamic Safety System(DDS) shows that the estimated reliability of the system is quite reasonable and realistic

An integrated model for reliability estimation of digital nuclear protection system based on fault tree and software control flow methodologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol; Seong, Poong Hyun

2000-01-01

In nuclear industry, the difficulty of proving the reliabilities of digital systems prohibits the widespread use of digital systems in various nuclear application such as plant protection system. Even though there exist a few models which are used to estimate the reliabilities of digital systems, we develop a new integrated model which is more realistic than the existing models. We divide the process of estimating the reliability of a digital system into two phases, a high-level phase and a low-level phase, and the boundary of two phases is the reliabilities of subsystems. We apply software control flow method to the low-level phase and fault tree analysis to the high-level phase. The application of the model of dynamic safety system (DSS) shows that the estimated reliability of the system is quite reasonable and realistic. (author)

Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) Quality Assurance Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

C. L. Smith; R. Nims; K. J. Kvarfordt; C. Wharton

2008-08-01

The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) is a software application developed for performing a complete probabilistic risk assessment using a personal computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system. SAPHIRE is primarily funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The role of the INL in this project is that of software developer and tester. This development takes place using formal software development procedures and is subject to quality assurance (QA) processes. The purpose of this document is to describe how the SAPHIRE software QA is performed for Version 6 and 7, what constitutes its parts, and limitations of those processes.

Analysis and Application of Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Hae Seong; Park, Dong Ho; Kim, Jae Ju

1999-05-01

This book tells of analysis and application of reliability, which includes definition, importance and historical background of reliability, function of reliability and failure rate, life distribution and assumption of reliability, reliability of unrepaired system, reliability of repairable system, sampling test of reliability, failure analysis like failure analysis by FEMA and FTA, and cases, accelerated life testing such as basic conception, acceleration and acceleration factor, and analysis of accelerated life testing data, maintenance policy about alternation and inspection.

The reliability of the software of the digital control system Nuclear Advantage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graae, T.; Engdahl, L.

1996-01-01

The ABB nuclear power control system Nuclear Advantage is a truly integrated control system. The integration of process control and safety control aims at achieving a common operator interface in order to simplify and thus improve control room ergonomics. The challenge is to design an integrated control system and at the same time ensure the functional separation between the independent safety subsystems as well as between the safety and the conventional sections. Software reliability is discussed and illustrated by statistical test results. It has proved to be a hundred times better than the reliability of the high-quality hardware. (orig.) [de

Damage tolerance reliability analysis of automotive spot-welded joints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahadevan, Sankaran; Ni Kan

2003-01-01

This paper develops a damage tolerance reliability analysis methodology for automotive spot-welded joints under multi-axial and variable amplitude loading history. The total fatigue life of a spot weld is divided into two parts, crack initiation and crack propagation. The multi-axial loading history is obtained from transient response finite element analysis of a vehicle model. A three-dimensional finite element model of a simplified joint with four spot welds is developed for static stress/strain analysis. A probabilistic Miner's rule is combined with a randomized strain-life curve family and the stress/strain analysis result to develop a strain-based probabilistic fatigue crack initiation life prediction for spot welds. Afterwards, the fatigue crack inside the base material sheet is modeled as a surface crack. Then a probabilistic crack growth model is combined with the stress analysis result to develop a probabilistic fatigue crack growth life prediction for spot welds. Both methods are implemented with MSC/NASTRAN and MSC/FATIGUE software, and are useful for reliability assessment of automotive spot-welded joints against fatigue and fracture

OVERVIEW OF THE SAPHIRE PROBABILISTIC RISK ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Curtis L.; Wood, Ted; Knudsen, James; Ma, Zhegang

2016-10-01

The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) is a software application developed for performing a complete probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) using a personal computer (PC) running the Microsoft Windows operating system. SAPHIRE Version 8 is funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and developed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). INL's primary role in this project is that of software developer and tester. However, INL also plays an important role in technology transfer by interfacing and supporting SAPHIRE users, who constitute a wide range of PRA practitioners from the NRC, national laboratories, the private sector, and foreign countries. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current technical capabilities found in SAPHIRE Version 8, including the user interface and enhanced solving algorithms.

Reliability and accuracy of a video analysis protocol to assess core ability.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Dawn A; Delgadillo, James Q; Fredericson, Michael; McConnell, Jennifer; Hodgins, Melissa; Besier, Thor F

2011-03-01

To develop and test a method to measure core ability in healthy athletes with 2-dimensional video analysis software (SiliconCOACH). Specific objectives were to: (1) develop a standardized exercise battery with progressions of increasing difficulty to evaluate areas of core ability in elite athletes; (2) develop an objective and quantitative grading rubric with the use of video analysis software; (3) assess the test-retest reliability of the exercise battery; (4) assess the interrater and intrarater reliability of the video analysis system; and (5) assess the accuracy of the assessment. Test-retest repeatability and accuracy. Testing was conducted in the Stanford Human Performance Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Nine female gymnasts currently training with the Stanford Varsity Women's Gymnastics Team participated in testing. Participants completed a test battery composed of planks, side planks, and leg bridges of increasing difficulty. Subjects completed two 20-minute testing sessions within a 4- to 10-day period. Two-dimensional sagittal-plane video was captured simultaneously with 3-dimensional motion capture. The main outcome measures were pelvic displacement and time that elapsed until failure occurred, as measured with SiliconCOACH video analysis software. Test-retest and interrater and intrarater reliability of the video analysis measures was assessed. Accuracy as compared with 3-dimensional motion capture also was assessed. Levels reached during the side planks and leg bridges had an excellent test-retest correlation (r(2) = 0.84, r(2) = 0.95). Pelvis displacements measured by examiner 1 and examiner 2 had an excellent correlation (r(2) = 0.86, intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.92). Pelvis displacements measured by examiner 1 during independent grading sessions had an excellent correlation (r(2) = 0.92). Pelvis displacements from the plank and from a set of combined plank and side plank exercises both had an excellent correlation with 3

Software analysis by simulation for nuclear plant availability and safety goals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lapassat, A.M.; Segalard, J.; Salichon, M.; Le Meur, M.; Boulc'h, J.

1988-01-01

The microprocessors utilisation for monitoring protection and safety of nuclear reactor has become reality in the eighties. The authorities responsible for reactor safety systems have considered the necessity of the correct functioning of reactor control systems. The problems take off, when analysis of software, has led us in a first time to develop a completely software tool of verification and validation of programs and specifications. The CEA (French Atomic Energie Commission) responsible of reliable distributed techniques of nuclear plant discusses in this paper the software test and simulation tools used to analyse real-time software. The tool O.S.T. make part of a big program of help for the conception and the evaluation for the systems' fault tolerance which the European ESPRIT SMART no. 1609 (System Measurement and Architecture Technique) will be the kernel [fr

An adaptive neuro fuzzy model for estimating the reliability of component-based software systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirti Tyagi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Although many algorithms and techniques have been developed for estimating the reliability of component-based software systems (CBSSs, much more research is needed. Accurate estimation of the reliability of a CBSS is difficult because it depends on two factors: component reliability and glue code reliability. Moreover, reliability is a real-world phenomenon with many associated real-time problems. Soft computing techniques can help to solve problems whose solutions are uncertain or unpredictable. A number of soft computing approaches for estimating CBSS reliability have been proposed. These techniques learn from the past and capture existing patterns in data. The two basic elements of soft computing are neural networks and fuzzy logic. In this paper, we propose a model for estimating CBSS reliability, known as an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS, that is based on these two basic elements of soft computing, and we compare its performance with that of a plain FIS (fuzzy inference system for different data sets.

Reliability Analysis of the CERN Radiation Monitoring Electronic System CROME

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(CDS)2126870

For the new in-house developed CERN Radiation Monitoring Electronic System (CROME) a reliability analysis is necessary to ensure compliance with the statu-tory requirements regarding the Safety Integrity Level. The required Safety Integrity Level by IEC 60532 standard is SIL 2 (for the Safety Integrated Functions Measurement, Alarm Triggering and Interlock Triggering). The first step of the reliability analysis was a system and functional analysis which served as basis for the implementation of the CROME system in the software “Iso-graph”. In the “Prediction” module of Isograph the failure rates of all components were calculated. Failure rates for passive components were calculated by the Military Standard 217 and failure rates for active components were obtained from lifetime tests by the manufacturers. The FMEA was carried out together with the board designers and implemented in the “FMECA” module of Isograph. The FMEA served as basis for the Fault Tree Analysis and the detection of weak points...

Application of Software Safety Analysis Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, G. Y.; Hur, S.; Cheon, S. W.; Kim, D. H.; Lee, D. Y.; Kwon, K. C.; Lee, S. J.; Koo, Y. H.

2009-01-01

A fully digitalized reactor protection system, which is called the IDiPS-RPS, was developed through the KNICS project. The IDiPS-RPS has four redundant and separated channels. Each channel is mainly composed of a group of bistable processors which redundantly compare process variables with their corresponding setpoints and a group of coincidence processors that generate a final trip signal when a trip condition is satisfied. Each channel also contains a test processor called the ATIP and a display and command processor called the COM. All the functions were implemented in software. During the development of the safety software, various software safety analysis methods were applied, in parallel to the verification and validation (V and V) activities, along the software development life cycle. The software safety analysis methods employed were the software hazard and operability (Software HAZOP) study, the software fault tree analysis (Software FTA), and the software failure modes and effects analysis (Software FMEA)

Optimal reliability allocation for large software projects through soft computing techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Henrik; Albeanu, Grigore; Popentiu-Vladicescu, Florin

2012-01-01

or maximizing the system reliability subject to budget constraints. These kinds of optimization problems were considered both in deterministic and stochastic frameworks in literature. Recently, the intuitionistic-fuzzy optimization approach was considered as a soft computing successful modelling approach....... Firstly, a review on existing soft computing approaches to optimization is given. The main section extends the results considering self-organizing migrating algorithms for solving intuitionistic-fuzzy optimization problems attached to complex fault-tolerant software architectures which proved...

Reliability and Validity of the Footprint Assessment Method Using Photoshop CS5 Software in Young People with Down Syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez-Vilahú, Lourdes; Massó-Ortigosa, Núria; Rey-Abella, Ferran; Costa-Tutusaus, Lluís; Guerra-Balic, Myriam

2016-05-01

People with Down syndrome present skeletal abnormalities in their feet that can be analyzed by commonly used gold standard indices (the Hernández-Corvo index, the Chippaux-Smirak index, the Staheli arch index, and the Clarke angle) based on footprint measurements. The use of Photoshop CS5 software (Adobe Systems Software Ireland Ltd, Dublin, Ireland) to measure footprints has been validated in the general population. The present study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of this footprint assessment technique in the population with Down syndrome. Using optical podography and photography, 44 footprints from 22 patients with Down syndrome (11 men [mean ± SD age, 23.82 ± 3.12 years] and 11 women [mean ± SD age, 24.82 ± 6.81 years]) were recorded in a static bipedal standing position. A blinded observer performed the measurements using a validated manual method three times during the 4-month study, with 2 months between measurements. Test-retest was used to check the reliability of the Photoshop CS5 software measurements. Validity and reliability were obtained by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The reliability test for all of the indices showed very good values for the Photoshop CS5 method (ICC, 0.982-0.995). Validity testing also found no differences between the techniques (ICC, 0.988-0.999). The Photoshop CS5 software method is reliable and valid for the study of footprints in young people with Down syndrome.

Reliability and maintainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

Several communications in this conference are concerned with nuclear plant reliability and maintainability; their titles are: maintenance optimization of stand-by Diesels of 900 MW nuclear power plants; CLAIRE: an event-based simulation tool for software testing; reliability as one important issue within the periodic safety review of nuclear power plants; design of nuclear building ventilation by the means of functional analysis; operation characteristic analysis for a power industry plant park, as a function of influence parameters

The cleanroom case study in the Software Engineering Laboratory: Project description and early analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Scott; Kouchakdjian, Ara; Basili, Victor; Weidow, David

1990-01-01

This case study analyzes the application of the cleanroom software development methodology to the development of production software at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The cleanroom methodology emphasizes human discipline in program verification to produce reliable software products that are right the first time. Preliminary analysis of the cleanroom case study shows that the method can be applied successfully in the FDD environment and may increase staff productivity and product quality. Compared to typical Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) activities, there is evidence of lower failure rates, a more complete and consistent set of inline code documentation, a different distribution of phase effort activity, and a different growth profile in terms of lines of code developed. The major goals of the study were to: (1) assess the process used in the SEL cleanroom model with respect to team structure, team activities, and effort distribution; (2) analyze the products of the SEL cleanroom model and determine the impact on measures of interest, including reliability, productivity, overall life-cycle cost, and software quality; and (3) analyze the residual products in the application of the SEL cleanroom model, such as fault distribution, error characteristics, system growth, and computer usage.

Intraobserver and intermethod reliability for using two different computer programs in preoperative lower limb alignment analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed Kenawey

2016-12-01

Conclusion: Computer assisted lower limb alignment analysis is reliable whether using graphics editing program or specialized planning software. However slight higher variability for angles away from the knee joint can be expected.

Agreement Between Face-to-Face and Free Software Video Analysis for Assessing Hamstring Flexibility in Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Moral-Muñoz, José A; Esteban-Moreno, Bernabé; Arroyo-Morales, Manuel; Cobo, Manuel J; Herrera-Viedma, Enrique

2015-09-01

The objective of this study was to determine the level of agreement between face-to-face hamstring flexibility measurements and free software video analysis in adolescents. Reduced hamstring flexibility is common in adolescents (75% of boys and 35% of girls aged 10). The length of the hamstring muscle has an important role in both the effectiveness and the efficiency of basic human movements, and reduced hamstring flexibility is related to various musculoskeletal conditions. There are various approaches to measuring hamstring flexibility with high reliability; the most commonly used approaches in the scientific literature are the sit-and-reach test, hip joint angle (HJA), and active knee extension. The assessment of hamstring flexibility using video analysis could help with adolescent flexibility follow-up. Fifty-four adolescents from a local school participated in a descriptive study of repeated measures using a crossover design. Active knee extension and HJA were measured with an inclinometer and were simultaneously recorded with a video camera. Each video was downloaded to a computer and subsequently analyzed using Kinovea 0.8.15, a free software application for movement analysis. All outcome measures showed reliability estimates with α > 0.90. The lowest reliability was obtained for HJA (α = 0.91). The preliminary findings support the use of a free software tool for assessing hamstring flexibility, offering health professionals a useful tool for adolescent flexibility follow-up.

Development of a Method for Quantifying the Reliability of Nuclear Safety-Related Software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yi Zhang; Michael W. Golay

2003-10-01

The work of our project is intended to help introducing digital technologies into nuclear power into nuclear power plant safety related software applications. In our project we utilize a combination of modern software engineering methods: design process discipline and feedback, formal methods, automated computer aided software engineering tools, automatic code generation, and extensive feasible structure flow path testing to improve software quality. The tactics include ensuring that the software structure is kept simple, permitting routine testing during design development, permitting extensive finished product testing in the input data space of most likely service and using test-based Bayesian updating to estimate the probability that a random software input will encounter an error upon execution. From the results obtained the software reliability can be both improved and its value estimated. Hopefully our success in the project's work can aid the transition of the nuclear enterprise into the modern information world. In our work, we have been using the proprietary sample software, the digital Signal Validation Algorithm (SVA), provided by Westinghouse. Also our work is being done with their collaboration. The SVA software is used for selecting the plant instrumentation signal set which is to be used as the input the digital Plant Protection System (PPS). This is the system that automatically decides whether to trip the reactor. In our work, we are using -001 computer assisted software engineering (CASE) tool of Hamilton Technologies Inc. This tool is capable of stating the syntactic structure of a program reflecting its state requirements, logical functions and data structure.

Development of a Method for Quantifying the Reliability of Nuclear Safety-Related Software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yi Zhang; Golay, Michael W.

2003-01-01

The work of our project is intended to help introducing digital technologies into nuclear power into nuclear power plant safety related software applications. In our project we utilize a combination of modern software engineering methods: design process discipline and feedback, formal methods, automated computer aided software engineering tools, automatic code generation, and extensive feasible structure flow path testing to improve software quality. The tactics include ensuring that the software structure is kept simple, permitting routine testing during design development, permitting extensive finished product testing in the input data space of most likely service and using test-based Bayesian updating to estimate the probability that a random software input will encounter an error upon execution. From the results obtained the software reliability can be both improved and its value estimated. Hopefully our success in the project's work can aid the transition of the nuclear enterprise into the modern information world. In our work, we have been using the proprietary sample software, the digital Signal Validation Algorithm (SVA), provided by Westinghouse. Also our work is being done with their collaboration. The SVA software is used for selecting the plant instrumentation signal set which is to be used as the input the digital Plant Protection System (PPS). This is the system that automatically decides whether to trip the reactor. In our work, we are using -001 computer assisted software engineering (CASE) tool of Hamilton Technologies Inc. This tool is capable of stating the syntactic structure of a program reflecting its state requirements, logical functions and data structure

Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ronald L. Boring; David I. Gertman

2005-01-01

This paper introduces a novel augmentation to the current heuristic usability evaluation methodology. The SPAR-H human reliability analysis method was developed for categorizing human performance in nuclear power plants. Despite the specialized use of SPAR-H for safety critical scenarios, the method also holds promise for use in commercial off-the-shelf software usability evaluations. The SPAR-H method shares task analysis underpinnings with human-computer interaction, and it can be easily adapted to incorporate usability heuristics as performance shaping factors. By assigning probabilistic modifiers to heuristics, it is possible to arrive at the usability error probability (UEP). This UEP is not a literal probability of error but nonetheless provides a quantitative basis to heuristic evaluation. When combined with a consequence matrix for usability errors, this method affords ready prioritization of usability issues

Methods for qualification of highly reliable software - international procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kersken, M.

1997-01-01

Despite the advantages of computer-assisted safety technology, there still is some uneasyness to be observed with respect to the novel processes, resulting from absence of a body of generally accepted and uncontentious qualification guides (regulatory provisions, standards) for safety evaluation of the computer codes applied. Warranty of adequate protection of the population, operators or plant components is an essential aspect in this context, too - as it is in general with reliability and risk assessment of novel technology - so that, due to appropriate legislation still missing, there currently is a licensing risk involved in the introduction of digital safety systems. Nevertheless, there is some extent of agreement within the international community and utility operators about what standards and measures should be applied for qualification of software of relevance to plant safety. The standard IEC 880/IEC 86/ in particular, in its original version, or national documents based on this standard, are applied in all countries using or planning to install those systems. A novel supplement to this standard, document /IEC 96/, is in the process of finalization and defines the requirements to be met by modern methods of software engineering. (orig./DG) [de

Comparative test-retest reliability of metabolite values assessed with magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain. The LCModel versus the manufacturer software.

Science.gov (United States)

Fayed, Nicolas; Modrego, Pedro J; Medrano, Jaime

2009-06-01

Reproducibility is an essential strength of any diagnostic technique for cross-sectional and longitudinal works. To determine in vivo short-term comparatively, the test-retest reliability of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain was compared using the manufacturer's software package and the widely used linear combination of model (LCModel) technique. Single-voxel H-MRS was performed in a series of patients with different pathologies on a 1.5 T clinical scanner. Four areas of the brain were explored with the point resolved spectroscopy technique acquisition mode; the echo time was 35 milliseconds and the repetition time was 2000 milliseconds. We enrolled 15 patients for every area, and the intra-individual variations of metabolites were studied in two consecutive scans without removing the patient from the scanner. Curve fitting and analysis of metabolites were made with the software of GE and the LCModel. Spectra non-fulfilling the minimum criteria of quality in relation to linewidths and signal/noise ratio were rejected. The intraclass correlation coefficients for the N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA/Cr) ratios were 0.93, 0.89, 0.9 and 0.8 for the posterior cingulate gyrus, occipital, prefrontal and temporal regions, respectively, with the GE software. For the LCModel, the coefficients were 0.9, 0.89, 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. For the absolute value of NAA, the GE software was also slightly more reproducible than LCModel. However, for the choline/Cr and myo-inositol/Cr ratios, the LCModel was more reliable than the GE software. The variability we have seen hovers around the percentages observed in previous reports (around 10% for the NAA/Cr ratios). We did not find that the LCModel software is superior to the software of the manufacturer. Reproducibility of metabolite values relies more on the observance of the quality parameters than on the software used.

Transient thermal-hydraulic characteristics analysis software for PWR nuclear power systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Yingwei; Zhuang Chengjun; Su Guanghui; Qiu Suizheng

2010-01-01

A point reactor neutron kinetics model, a two-phase drift-flow U-tube steam generator model, an advanced non-equilibrium three regions pressurizer model, and a passive emergency core decay heat-removed system model are adopted in the paper to develop the computerized analysis code for PWR transient thermal-hydraulic characteristics, by Compaq Visual Fortran 6.0 language. Visual input, real-time processing and dynamic visualization output are achieved by Microsoft Visual Studio. NET language. The reliability verification of the soft has been conducted by RELAP 5, and the verification results show that the software is with high calculation precision, high calculation speed, modern interface, luxuriant functions and strong operability. The software was applied to calculate the transient accident conditions for QSNP, and the analysis results are significant to the practical engineering applications. (authors)

Design and reliability analysis of DP-3 dynamic positioning control architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Fang; Wan, Lei; Jiang, Da-Peng; Xu, Yu-Ru

2011-12-01

As the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas proliferate throughout deepwater area, the requirements on the reliability of dynamic positioning system become increasingly stringent. The control objective ensuring safety operation at deep water will not be met by a single controller for dynamic positioning. In order to increase the availability and reliability of dynamic positioning control system, the triple redundancy hardware and software control architectures were designed and developed according to the safe specifications of DP-3 classification notation for dynamically positioned ships and rigs. The hardware redundant configuration takes the form of triple-redundant hot standby configuration including three identical operator stations and three real-time control computers which connect each other through dual networks. The function of motion control and redundancy management of control computers were implemented by software on the real-time operating system VxWorks. The software realization of task loose synchronization, majority voting and fault detection were presented in details. A hierarchical software architecture was planed during the development of software, consisting of application layer, real-time layer and physical layer. The behavior of the DP-3 dynamic positioning control system was modeled by a Markov model to analyze its reliability. The effects of variation in parameters on the reliability measures were investigated. The time domain dynamic simulation was carried out on a deepwater drilling rig to prove the feasibility of the proposed control architecture.

Failure and Reliability Analysis for the Master Pump Shutdown System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BEVINS, R.R.

2000-01-01

The Master Pump Shutdown System (MPSS) will be installed in the 200 Areas of the Hanford Site to monitor and control the transfer of liquid waste between tank farms and between the 200 West and 200 East areas through the Cross-Site Transfer Line. The Safety Function provided by the MPSS is to shutdown any waste transfer process within or between tank farms if a waste leak should occur along the selected transfer route. The MPSS, which provides this Safety Class Function, is composed of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), interconnecting wires, relays, Human to Machine Interfaces (HMI), and software. These components are defined as providing a Safety Class Function and will be designated in this report as MPSS/PLC. Input signals to the MPSS/PLC are provided by leak detection systems from each of the tank farm leak detector locations along the waste transfer route. The combination of the MPSS/PLC, leak detection system, and transfer pump controller system will be referred to as MPSS/SYS. The components addressed in this analysis are associated with the MPSS/SYS. The purpose of this failure and reliability analysis is to address the following design issues of the Project Development Specification (PDS) for the MPSS/SYS (HNF 2000a): (1) Single Component Failure Criterion, (2) System Status Upon Loss of Electrical Power, (3) Physical Separation of Safety Class cables, (4) Physical Isolation of Safety Class Wiring from General Service Wiring, and (5) Meeting the MPSS/PLC Option 1b (RPP 1999) Reliability estimate. The failure and reliability analysis examined the system on a component level basis and identified any hardware or software elements that could fail and/or prevent the system from performing its intended safety function

Software development processes and analysis software: a mismatch and a novel framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, D.; Harauz, J.

2011-01-01

This paper discusses the salient characteristics of analysis software and the impact of those characteristics on its development. From this discussion, it can be seen that mainstream software development processes, usually characterized as Plan Driven or Agile, are built upon assumptions that are mismatched to the development and maintenance of analysis software. We propose a novel software development framework that would match the process normally observed in the development of analysis software. In the discussion of this framework, we suggest areas of research and directions for future work. (author)

Fault tree analysis of KNICS RPS software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Gee Yong; Kwon, Kee Choon; Koh, Kwang Yong; Jee, Eun Kyoung; Seong, Poong Hyun; Lee, Dae Hyung

2008-01-01

This paper describes the application of a software Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) as one of the analysis techniques for a Software Safety Analysis (SSA) at the design phase and its analysis results for the safety-critical software of a digital reactor protection system, which is called the KNICS RPS, being developed in the KNICS (Korea Nuclear Instrumentation and Control Systems) project. The software modules in the design description were represented by Function Blocks (FBs), and the software FTA was performed based on the well-defined fault tree templates for the FBs. The SSA, which is part of the verification and validation (V and V) activities, was activated at each phase of the software lifecycle for the KNICS RPS. At the design phase, the software HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) and the software FTA were employed in the SSA in such a way that the software HAZOP was performed first and then the software FTA was applied. The software FTA was applied to some critical modules selected from the software HAZOP analysis

Considerations of the Software Metric-based Methodology for Software Reliability Assessment in Digital I and C Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, J. H.; Kim, M. K.; Chung, B. S.; Oh, H. C.; Seo, M. R.

2007-01-01

Analog I and C systems have been replaced by digital I and C systems because the digital systems have many potential benefits to nuclear power plants in terms of operational and safety performance. For example, digital systems are essentially free of drifts, have higher data handling and storage capabilities, and provide improved performance by accuracy and computational capabilities. In addition, analog replacement parts become more difficult to obtain since they are obsolete and discontinued. There are, however, challenges to the introduction of digital technology into the nuclear power plants because digital systems are more complex than analog systems and their operation and failure modes are different. Especially, software, which can be the core of functionality in the digital systems, does not wear out physically like hardware and its failure modes are not yet defined clearly. Thus, some researches to develop the methodology for software reliability assessment are still proceeding in the safety-critical areas such as nuclear system, aerospace and medical devices. Among them, software metric-based methodology has been considered for the digital I and C systems of Korean nuclear power plants. Advantages and limitations of that methodology are identified and requirements for its application to the digital I and C systems are considered in this study

Reliability Quantification Method for Safety Critical Software Based on a Finite Test Set

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Sung Min; Kim, Hee Eun; Kang, Hyun Gook; Lee, Seung Jun

2014-01-01

Software inside of digitalized system have very important role because it may cause irreversible consequence and affect the whole system as common cause failure. However, test-based reliability quantification method for some safety critical software has limitations caused by difficulties in developing input sets as a form of trajectory which is series of successive values of variables. To address these limitations, this study proposed another method which conduct the test using combination of single values of variables. To substitute the trajectory form of input using combination of variables, the possible range of each variable should be identified. For this purpose, assigned range of each variable, logical relations between variables, plant dynamics under certain situation, and characteristics of obtaining information of digital device are considered. A feasibility of the proposed method was confirmed through an application to the Reactor Protection System (RPS) software trip logic

On-Orbit Software Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Susanne I.

2004-01-01

The On-Orbit Software Analysis Research Infusion Project was done by Intrinsyx Technologies Corporation (Intrinsyx) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC). The Project was a joint collaborative effort between NASA Codes IC and SL, Kestrel Technology (Kestrel), and Intrinsyx. The primary objectives of the Project were: Discovery and verification of software program properties and dependencies, Detection and isolation of software defects across different versions of software, and Compilation of historical data and technical expertise for future applications

Multidisciplinary System Reliability Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Mahadevan, Sankaran; Han, Song; Chamis, Christos C. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The objective of this study is to develop a new methodology for estimating the reliability of engineering systems that encompass multiple disciplines. The methodology is formulated in the context of the NESSUS probabilistic structural analysis code, developed under the leadership of NASA Glenn Research Center. The NESSUS code has been successfully applied to the reliability estimation of a variety of structural engineering systems. This study examines whether the features of NESSUS could be used to investigate the reliability of systems in other disciplines such as heat transfer, fluid mechanics, electrical circuits etc., without considerable programming effort specific to each discipline. In this study, the mechanical equivalence between system behavior models in different disciplines are investigated to achieve this objective. A new methodology is presented for the analysis of heat transfer, fluid flow, and electrical circuit problems using the structural analysis routines within NESSUS, by utilizing the equivalence between the computational quantities in different disciplines. This technique is integrated with the fast probability integration and system reliability techniques within the NESSUS code, to successfully compute the system reliability of multidisciplinary systems. Traditional as well as progressive failure analysis methods for system reliability estimation are demonstrated, through a numerical example of a heat exchanger system involving failure modes in structural, heat transfer and fluid flow disciplines.

Techniques for developing reliable and functional materials control and accounting software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barlich, G.

1988-01-01

The media has increasingly focused on failures of computer systems resulting in financial, material, and other losses and on systems failing to function as advertised. Unfortunately, such failures with equally disturbing losses are possible in computer systems providing materials control and accounting (MCandA) functions. Major improvements in the reliability and correctness of systems are possible with disciplined design and development techniques applied during software development. This paper describes some of the techniques used in the Safeguard Systems Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory for various MCandA systems

On Quality and Measures in Software Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Bucur, Ion I.

2006-01-01

Complexity measures are mainly used to estimate vital information about reliability and maintainability of software systems from regular analysis of the source code. Such measures also provide constant feedback during a software project to assist the control of the development procedure. There exist several models to classify a software product's…

A study of software safety analysis system for safety-critical software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, H. S.; Shin, H. K.; Chang, Y. W.; Jung, J. C.; Kim, J. H.; Han, H. H.; Son, H. S.

2004-01-01

The core factors and requirements for the safety-critical software traced and the methodology adopted in each stage of software life cycle are presented. In concept phase, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for the system has been performed. The feasibility evaluation of selected safety parameter was performed and Preliminary Hazards Analysis list was prepared using HAZOP(Hazard and Operability) technique. And the check list for management control has been produced via walk-through technique. Based on the evaluation of the check list, activities to be performed in requirement phase have been determined. In the design phase, hazard analysis has been performed to check the safety capability of the system with regard to safety software algorithm using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). In the test phase, the test items based on FMEA have been checked for fitness guided by an accident scenario. The pressurizer low pressure trip algorithm has been selected to apply FTA method to software safety analysis as a sample. By applying CASE tool, the requirements traceability of safety critical system has been enhanced during all of software life cycle phases

Computing and software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

White, G. C.

2004-06-01

Full Text Available The reality is that the statistical methods used for analysis of data depend upon the availability of software. Analysis of marked animal data is no different than the rest of the statistical field. The methods used for analysis are those that are available in reliable software packages. Thus, the critical importance of having reliable, up–to–date software available to biologists is obvious. Statisticians have continued to develop more robust models, ever expanding the suite of potential analysis methods available. But without software to implement these newer methods, they will languish in the abstract, and not be applied to the problems deserving them. In the Computers and Software Session, two new software packages are described, a comparison of implementation of methods for the estimation of nest survival is provided, and a more speculative paper about how the next generation of software might be structured is presented. Rotella et al. (2004 compare nest survival estimation with different software packages: SAS logistic regression, SAS non–linear mixed models, and Program MARK. Nests are assumed to be visited at various, possibly infrequent, intervals. All of the approaches described compute nest survival with the same likelihood, and require that the age of the nest is known to account for nests that eventually hatch. However, each approach offers advantages and disadvantages, explored by Rotella et al. (2004. Efford et al. (2004 present a new software package called DENSITY. The package computes population abundance and density from trapping arrays and other detection methods with a new and unique approach. DENSITY represents the first major addition to the analysis of trapping arrays in 20 years. Barker & White (2004 discuss how existing software such as Program MARK require that each new model’s likelihood must be programmed specifically for that model. They wishfully think that future software might allow the user to combine

Automatically generated acceptance test: A software reliability experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Protzel, Peter W.

1988-01-01

This study presents results of a software reliability experiment investigating the feasibility of a new error detection method. The method can be used as an acceptance test and is solely based on empirical data about the behavior of internal states of a program. The experimental design uses the existing environment of a multi-version experiment previously conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center, in which the launch interceptor problem is used as a model. This allows the controlled experimental investigation of versions with well-known single and multiple faults, and the availability of an oracle permits the determination of the error detection performance of the test. Fault interaction phenomena are observed that have an amplifying effect on the number of error occurrences. Preliminary results indicate that all faults examined so far are detected by the acceptance test. This shows promise for further investigations, and for the employment of this test method on other applications.

A coverage and slicing dependencies analysis for seeking software security defects.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Hui; Zhang, Dongyan; Liu, Min; Zhang, Weizhe; Gao, Dongmin

2014-01-01

Software security defects have a serious impact on the software quality and reliability. It is a major hidden danger for the operation of a system that a software system has some security flaws. When the scale of the software increases, its vulnerability has becoming much more difficult to find out. Once these vulnerabilities are exploited, it may lead to great loss. In this situation, the concept of Software Assurance is carried out by some experts. And the automated fault localization technique is a part of the research of Software Assurance. Currently, automated fault localization method includes coverage based fault localization (CBFL) and program slicing. Both of the methods have their own location advantages and defects. In this paper, we have put forward a new method, named Reverse Data Dependence Analysis Model, which integrates the two methods by analyzing the program structure. On this basis, we finally proposed a new automated fault localization method. This method not only is automation lossless but also changes the basic location unit into single sentence, which makes the location effect more accurate. Through several experiments, we proved that our method is more effective. Furthermore, we analyzed the effectiveness among these existing methods and different faults.

A New Method to Detect and Correct the Critical Errors and Determine the Software-Reliability in Critical Software-System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krini, Ossmane; Börcsök, Josef

2012-01-01

In order to use electronic systems comprising of software and hardware components in safety related and high safety related applications, it is necessary to meet the Marginal risk numbers required by standards and legislative provisions. Existing processes and mathematical models are used to verify the risk numbers. On the hardware side, various accepted mathematical models, processes, and methods exist to provide the required proof. To this day, however, there are no closed models or mathematical procedures known that allow for a dependable prediction of software reliability. This work presents a method that makes a prognosis on the residual critical error number in software. Conventional models lack this ability and right now, there are no methods that forecast critical errors. The new method will show that an estimate of the residual error number of critical errors in software systems is possible by using a combination of prediction models, a ratio of critical errors, and the total error number. Subsequently, the critical expected value-function at any point in time can be derived from the new solution method, provided the detection rate has been calculated using an appropriate estimation method. Also, the presented method makes it possible to make an estimate on the critical failure rate. The approach is modelled on a real process and therefore describes two essential processes - detection and correction process.

Software metrics: Software quality metrics for distributed systems. [reliability engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Post, J. V.

1981-01-01

Software quality metrics was extended to cover distributed computer systems. Emphasis is placed on studying embedded computer systems and on viewing them within a system life cycle. The hierarchy of quality factors, criteria, and metrics was maintained. New software quality factors were added, including survivability, expandability, and evolvability.

HUMAN RELIABILITY ANALYSIS DENGAN PENDEKATAN COGNITIVE RELIABILITY AND ERROR ANALYSIS METHOD (CREAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zahirah Alifia Maulida

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Kecelakaan kerja pada bidang grinding dan welding menempati urutan tertinggi selama lima tahun terakhir di PT. X. Kecelakaan ini disebabkan oleh human error. Human error terjadi karena pengaruh lingkungan kerja fisik dan non fisik.Penelitian kali menggunakan skenario untuk memprediksi serta mengurangi kemungkinan terjadinya error pada manusia dengan pendekatan CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method. CREAM adalah salah satu metode human reliability analysis yang berfungsi untuk mendapatkan nilai Cognitive Failure Probability (CFP yang dapat dilakukan dengan dua cara yaitu basic method dan extended method. Pada basic method hanya akan didapatkan nilai failure probabailty secara umum, sedangkan untuk extended method akan didapatkan CFP untuk setiap task. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan faktor- faktor yang mempengaruhi timbulnya error pada pekerjaan grinding dan welding adalah kecukupan organisasi, kecukupan dari Man Machine Interface (MMI & dukungan operasional, ketersediaan prosedur/ perencanaan, serta kecukupan pelatihan dan pengalaman. Aspek kognitif pada pekerjaan grinding yang memiliki nilai error paling tinggi adalah planning dengan nilai CFP 0.3 dan pada pekerjaan welding yaitu aspek kognitif execution dengan nilai CFP 0.18. Sebagai upaya untuk mengurangi nilai error kognitif pada pekerjaan grinding dan welding rekomendasi yang diberikan adalah memberikan training secara rutin, work instrucstion yang lebih rinci dan memberikan sosialisasi alat. Kata kunci: CREAM (cognitive reliability and error analysis method, HRA (human reliability analysis, cognitive error Abstract The accidents in grinding and welding sectors were the highest cases over the last five years in PT. X and it caused by human error. Human error occurs due to the influence of working environment both physically and non-physically. This study will implement an approaching scenario called CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method. CREAM is one of human

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software.

Science.gov (United States)

Cope, Diane G

2014-05-01

Advances in technology have provided new approaches for data collection methods and analysis for researchers. Data collection is no longer limited to paper-and-pencil format, and numerous methods are now available through Internet and electronic resources. With these techniques, researchers are not burdened with entering data manually and data analysis is facilitated by software programs. Quantitative research is supported by the use of computer software and provides ease in the management of large data sets and rapid analysis of numeric statistical methods. New technologies are emerging to support qualitative research with the availability of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS).CAQDAS will be presented with a discussion of advantages, limitations, controversial issues, and recommendations for this type of software use.

Imaging software accuracy for 3-dimensional analysis of the upper airway.

Science.gov (United States)

Weissheimer, André; Menezes, Luciane Macedo de; Sameshima, Glenn T; Enciso, Reyes; Pham, John; Grauer, Dan

2012-12-01

The aim of this study was to compare the precision and accuracy of 6 imaging software programs for measuring upper airway volumes in cone-beam computed tomography data. The sample consisted of 33 growing patients and an oropharynx acrylic phantom, scanned with an i-CAT scanner (Imaging Sciences International, Hatfield, Pa). The known oropharynx acrylic phantom volume was used as the gold standard. Semi-automatic segmentations with interactive and fixed threshold protocols of the patients' oropharynx and oropharynx acrylic phantom were performed by using Mimics (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium), ITK-Snap (www.itksnap.org), OsiriX (Pixmeo, Geneva, Switzerland), Dolphin3D (Dolphin Imaging & Management Solutions, Chatsworth, Calif), InVivo Dental (Anatomage, San Jose, Calif), and Ondemand3D (CyberMed, Seoul, Korea) software programs. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used for the reliability tests. A repeated measurements analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and post-hoc tests (Bonferroni) were used to compare the software programs. The reliability was high for all programs. With the interactive threshold protocol, the oropharynx acrylic phantom segmentations with Mimics, Dolphin3D, OsiriX, and ITK-Snap showed less than 2% errors in volumes compared with the gold standard. Ondemand3D and InVivo Dental had more than 5% errors compared with the gold standard. With the fixed threshold protocol, the volume errors were similar (-11.1% to -11.7%) among the programs. In the oropharynx segmentation with the interactive protocol, ITK-Snap, Mimics, OsiriX, and Dolphin3D were statistically significantly different (P 0.05) was found between InVivo Dental and OnDemand3D. All 6 imaging software programs were reliable but had errors in the volume segmentations of the oropharynx. Mimics, Dolphin3D, ITK-Snap, and OsiriX were similar and more accurate than InVivo Dental and Ondemand3D for upper airway assessment. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by

Gamma-Ray Spectrum Analysis Software GDA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wanabongse, P.

1998-01-01

The developmental work on computer software for gamma-ray spectrum analysis has been completed as a software package version 1.02 named GDA, which is an acronym for Gamma-spectrum Deconvolution and Analysis. The software package consists of three 3.5-inch diskettes for setup and a user's manual. GDA software can be installed for using on a personal computer with Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system. A computer maybe the type of 80486 CPU with 8 megabytes of memory

Testing of real-time-software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friesland, G.; Ovenhausen, H.

1975-05-01

The situation in the area of testing real-time-software is unsatisfactory. During the first phase of the project PROMOTE (prozessorientiertes Modul- und Gesamttestsystem) an analysis of the momentary situation took place, results of which are summarized in the following study about some user interviews and an analysis of relevant literature. 22 users (industry, software-houses, hardware-manufacturers, and institutes) have been interviewed. Discussions were held about reliability of real-time software with special interest to error avoidance, testing, and debugging. Main aims of the analysis of the literature were elaboration of standard terms, comparison of existing test methods and -systems, and the definition of boundaries to related areas. During the further steps of this project some means and techniques will be worked out to systematically test real-time software. (orig.) [de

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF BENDING ELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

eobe

Reliability analysis of the safety levels of the criteria slabs, have been .... was also noted [2] that if the risk level or β < 3.1), the ... reliability analysis. A study [6] has shown that all geometric variables, ..... Germany, 1988. 12. Hasofer, A. M and ...

From napkin sketches to reliable software

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelen, L.J.P.

2012-01-01

In the past few years, model-driven software engineering (MDSE) and domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) have received a lot of attention from both research and industry. The main goal of MDSE is generating software from models that describe systems on a high level of abstraction. DSMLs are

Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, K.D.; McKay, M.K.; Sattison, M.B.; Skinner, N.L.; Wood, S.T.; Rasmuson, D.M.

1992-01-01

The Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS) is a state-of-the-art, microcomputer-based probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) model development and analysis tool to address key nuclear plant safety issues. IRRAS is an integrated software tool that gives the user the ability to create and analyze fault trees and accident sequences using a microcomputer. This program provides functions that range from graphical fault tree construction to cut set generation and quantification. Version 1.0 of the IRRAS program was released in February of 1987. Since that time, many user comments and enhancements have been incorporated into the program providing a much more powerful and user-friendly system. This version has been designated IRRAS 4.0 and is the subject of this Reference Manual. Version 4.0 of IRRAS provides the same capabilities as Version 1.0 and adds a relational data base facility for managing the data, improved functionality, and improved algorithm performance

Software reliability evaluation of digital plant protection system development process using V and V

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Na Young; Hwang, Il Soon; Seong, Seung Hwan; Oh, Seung Rok

2001-01-01

In the nuclear power industry, digital technology has been introduced recently for the Instrumentation and Control (I and C) of reactor systems. For its application to the safety critical system such as Reactor Protection System(RPS), a reliability assessment is indispensable. Unlike traditional reliability models, software reliability is hard to evaluate, and should be evaluated throughout development lifecycle. In the development process of Digital Plant Protection System(DPPS), the concept of verification and validation (V and V) was introduced to assure the quality of the product. Also, test should be performed to assure the reliability. Verification procedure with model checking is relatively well defined, however, test is labor intensive and not well organized. In this paper, we developed the methodological process of combining the verification with validation test case generation. For this, we used PVS for the table specification and for the theorem proving. As a result, we could not only save time to design test case but also get more effective and complete verification related test case set. Add to this, we could extract some meaningful factors useful for the reliability evaluation both from the V and V and verification combined tests

Assessing and updating the reliability of concrete bridges subjected to spatial deterioration - principles and software implementation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Ronald; Fischer, Johannes; Bügler, Maximilian

2015-01-01

to implement the method presented here. The software prototype is applied to a typical highway bridge and the influence of inspection information on the system deterioration state and the structural reliability is quantified taking into account the spatial correlation of the corrosion process. This work...

Software quality testing process analysis

OpenAIRE

Mera Paz, Julián

2016-01-01

Introduction: This article is the result of reading, review, analysis of books, magazines and articles well known for their scientific and research quality, which have addressed the software quality testing process. The author, based on his work experience in software development companies, teaching and other areas, has compiled and selected information to argue and substantiate the importance of the software quality testing process. Methodology: the existing literature on the software qualit...

Reliability analysis techniques in power plant design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, N.E.

1981-01-01

An overview of reliability analysis techniques is presented as applied to power plant design. The key terms, power plant performance, reliability, availability and maintainability are defined. Reliability modeling, methods of analysis and component reliability data are briefly reviewed. Application of reliability analysis techniques from a design engineering approach to improving power plant productivity is discussed. (author)

Reliability analysis of shutdown system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, C. Senthil; John Arul, A.; Pal Singh, Om; Suryaprakasa Rao, K.

2005-01-01

This paper presents the results of reliability analysis of Shutdown System (SDS) of Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor. Reliability analysis carried out using Fault Tree Analysis predicts a value of 3.5 x 10 -8 /de for failure of shutdown function in case of global faults and 4.4 x 10 -8 /de for local faults. Based on 20 de/y, the frequency of shutdown function failure is 0.7 x 10 -6 /ry, which meets the reliability target, set by the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. The reliability is limited by Common Cause Failure (CCF) of actuation part of SDS and to a lesser extent CCF of electronic components. The failure frequency of individual systems is -3 /ry, which also meets the safety criteria. Uncertainty analysis indicates a maximum error factor of 5 for the top event unavailability

Integrating reliability analysis and design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasmuson, D.M.

1980-10-01

This report describes the Interactive Reliability Analysis Project and demonstrates the advantages of using computer-aided design systems (CADS) in reliability analysis. Common cause failure problems require presentations of systems, analysis of fault trees, and evaluation of solutions to these. Results have to be communicated between the reliability analyst and the system designer. Using a computer-aided design system saves time and money in the analysis of design. Computer-aided design systems lend themselves to cable routing, valve and switch lists, pipe routing, and other component studies. At EG and G Idaho, Inc., the Applicon CADS is being applied to the study of water reactor safety systems

Multi-Disciplinary System Reliability Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Mahadevan, Sankaran; Han, Song

1997-01-01

The objective of this study is to develop a new methodology for estimating the reliability of engineering systems that encompass multiple disciplines. The methodology is formulated in the context of the NESSUS probabilistic structural analysis code developed under the leadership of NASA Lewis Research Center. The NESSUS code has been successfully applied to the reliability estimation of a variety of structural engineering systems. This study examines whether the features of NESSUS could be used to investigate the reliability of systems in other disciplines such as heat transfer, fluid mechanics, electrical circuits etc., without considerable programming effort specific to each discipline. In this study, the mechanical equivalence between system behavior models in different disciplines are investigated to achieve this objective. A new methodology is presented for the analysis of heat transfer, fluid flow, and electrical circuit problems using the structural analysis routines within NESSUS, by utilizing the equivalence between the computational quantities in different disciplines. This technique is integrated with the fast probability integration and system reliability techniques within the NESSUS code, to successfully compute the system reliability of multi-disciplinary systems. Traditional as well as progressive failure analysis methods for system reliability estimation are demonstrated, through a numerical example of a heat exchanger system involving failure modes in structural, heat transfer and fluid flow disciplines.

Fundamentals and applications of systems reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boesebeck, K.; Heuser, F.W.; Kotthoff, K.

1976-01-01

The lecture gives a survey on the application of methods of reliability analysis to assess the safety of nuclear power plants. Possible statements of reliability analysis in connection with specifications of the atomic licensing procedure are especially dealt with. Existing specifications of safety criteria are additionally discussed with the help of reliability analysis by the example of the reliability analysis of a reactor protection system. Beyond the limited application to single safety systems, the significance of reliability analysis for a closed risk concept is explained in the last part of the lecture. (orig./LH) [de

Reliability of new software in measuring cervical multifidus diameters and shoulder muscle strength in a synchronized way; an ultrasonographic study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leila Rahnama

2015-08-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted with the purpose of evaluating the inter-session reliability of new software to measure the diameters of the cervical multifidus muscle (CMM, both at rest and during isometric contractions of the shoulder abductors in subjects with neck pain and in healthy individuals.METHOD: In the present study, the reliability of measuring the diameters of the CMM with the Sonosynch software was evaluated by using 24 participants, including 12 subjects with chronic neck pain and 12 healthy individuals. The anterior-posterior diameter (APD and the lateral diameter (LD of the CMM were measured in a resting state and then repeated during isometric contraction of the shoulder abductors. Measurements were taken on separate occasions 3 to 7 days apart in order to determine inter-session reliability. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, standard error of measurement (SEM, and smallest detectable difference (SDD were used to evaluate the relative and absolute reliability, respectively.RESULTS: The Sonosynch software has shown to be highly reliable in measuring the diameters of the CMM both in healthy subjects and in those with neck pain. The ICCs 95% CI for APD ranged from 0.84 to 0.94 in subjects with neck pain and from 0.86 to 0.94 in healthy subjects. For LD, the ICC 95% CI ranged from 0.64 to 0.95 in subjects with neck pain and from 0.82 to 0.92 in healthy subjects.CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonographic measurement of the diameters of the CMM using Sonosynch has proved to be reliable especially for APD in healthy subjects as well as subjects with neck pain.

Validation and reliability of the sex estimation of the human os coxae using freely available DSP2 software for bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.

Science.gov (United States)

Brůžek, Jaroslav; Santos, Frédéric; Dutailly, Bruno; Murail, Pascal; Cunha, Eugenia

2017-10-01

A new tool for skeletal sex estimation based on measurements of the human os coxae is presented using skeletons from a metapopulation of identified adult individuals from twelve independent population samples. For reliable sex estimation, a posterior probability greater than 0.95 was considered to be the classification threshold: below this value, estimates are considered indeterminate. By providing free software, we aim to develop an even more disseminated method for sex estimation. Ten metric variables collected from 2,040 ossa coxa of adult subjects of known sex were recorded between 1986 and 2002 (reference sample). To test both the validity and reliability, a target sample consisting of two series of adult ossa coxa of known sex (n = 623) was used. The DSP2 software (Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste v2) is based on Linear Discriminant Analysis, and the posterior probabilities are calculated using an R script. For the reference sample, any combination of four dimensions provides a correct sex estimate in at least 99% of cases. The percentage of individuals for whom sex can be estimated depends on the number of dimensions; for all ten variables it is higher than 90%. Those results are confirmed in the target sample. Our posterior probability threshold of 0.95 for sex estimate corresponds to the traditional sectioning point used in osteological studies. DSP2 software is replacing the former version that should not be used anymore. DSP2 is a robust and reliable technique for sexing adult os coxae, and is also user friendly. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reliability analysis of mining equipment: A case study of a crushing plant at Jajarm Bauxite Mine in Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barabady, Javad; Kumar, Uday

2008-01-01

The performance of mining machines depends on the reliability of the equipment used, the operating environment, the maintenance efficiency, the operation process, the technical expertise of the miners, etc. As the size and complexity of mining equipments continue to increase, the implications of equipment failure become ever more critical. Therefore, reliability analysis is required to identify the bottlenecks in the system and to find the components or subsystems with low reliability for a given designed performance. It is important to select a suitable method for data collection as well as for reliability analysis. This paper presents a case study describing reliability and availability analysis of the crushing plant number 3 at Jajarm Bauxite Mine in Iran. In this study, the crushing plant number 3 is divided into six subsystems. The parameters of some probability distributions, such as Weibull, Exponential, and Lognormal distributions have been estimated by using ReliaSoft's Weibull++6 software. The results of the analysis show that the conveyer subsystem and secondary screen subsystem are critical from a reliability point of view, and the secondary crusher subsystem and conveyer subsystem are critical from an availability point of view. The study also shows that the reliability analysis is very useful for deciding maintenance intervals

Microgrid Design Analysis Using Technology Management Optimization and the Performance Reliability Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stamp, Jason E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Eddy, John P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jensen, Richard P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Munoz-Ramos, Karina [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2016-01-01

Microgrids are a focus of localized energy production that support resiliency, security, local con- trol, and increased access to renewable resources (among other potential benefits). The Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) Joint Capa- bility Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program between the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) resulted in the pre- liminary design and deployment of three microgrids at military installations. This paper is focused on the analysis process and supporting software used to determine optimal designs for energy surety microgrids (ESMs) in the SPIDERS project. There are two key pieces of software, an ex- isting software application developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) called Technology Management Optimization (TMO) and a new simulation developed for SPIDERS called the per- formance reliability model (PRM). TMO is a decision support tool that performs multi-objective optimization over a mixed discrete/continuous search space for which the performance measures are unrestricted in form. The PRM is able to statistically quantify the performance and reliability of a microgrid operating in islanded mode (disconnected from any utility power source). Together, these two software applications were used as part of the ESM process to generate the preliminary designs presented by SNL-led DOE team to the DOD. Acknowledgements Sandia National Laboratories and the SPIDERS technical team would like to acknowledge the following for help in the project: * Mike Hightower, who has been the key driving force for Energy Surety Microgrids * Juan Torres and Abbas Akhil, who developed the concept of microgrids for military instal- lations * Merrill Smith, U.S. Department of Energy SPIDERS Program Manager * Ross Roley and Rich Trundy from U.S. Pacific Command * Bill Waugaman and Bill Beary from U.S. Northern Command * Tarek Abdallah, Melanie

Software development for the analysis of heartbeat sounds with LabVIEW in diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Topal, Taner; Polat, Hüseyin; Güler, Inan

2008-10-01

In this paper, a time-frequency spectral analysis software (Heart Sound Analyzer) for the computer-aided analysis of cardiac sounds has been developed with LabVIEW. Software modules reveal important information for cardiovascular disorders, it can also assist to general physicians to come up with more accurate and reliable diagnosis at early stages. Heart sound analyzer (HSA) software can overcome the deficiency of expert doctors and help them in rural as well as urban clinics and hospitals. HSA has two main blocks: data acquisition and preprocessing, time-frequency spectral analyses. The heart sounds are first acquired using a modified stethoscope which has an electret microphone in it. Then, the signals are analysed using the time-frequency/scale spectral analysis techniques such as STFT, Wigner-Ville distribution and wavelet transforms. HSA modules have been tested with real heart sounds from 35 volunteers and proved to be quite efficient and robust while dealing with a large variety of pathological conditions.

Analysis of open source GIS software

OpenAIRE

Božnis, Andrius

2006-01-01

GIS is one of the most perspective information technology sciences sphere. GIS conjuncts the digital image analysis and data base systems. This makes GIS wide applicable and very high skills demanding system. There is a lot of commercial GIS software which is well advertised and which functionality is pretty well known, while open source software is forgotten. In this diploma work is made analysis of available open source GIS software on the Internet, in the scope of different projects interr...

High pressure single-crystal micro X-ray diffraction analysis with GSE_ADA/RSV software

Science.gov (United States)

Dera, Przemyslaw; Zhuravlev, Kirill; Prakapenka, Vitali; Rivers, Mark L.; Finkelstein, Gregory J.; Grubor-Urosevic, Ognjen; Tschauner, Oliver; Clark, Simon M.; Downs, Robert T.

2013-08-01

GSE_ADA/RSV is a free software package for custom analysis of single-crystal micro X-ray diffraction (SCμXRD) data, developed with particular emphasis on data from samples enclosed in diamond anvil cells and subject to high pressure conditions. The package has been in extensive use at the high pressure beamlines of Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory and Advanced Light Source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The software is optimized for processing of wide-rotation images and includes a variety of peak intensity corrections and peak filtering features, which are custom-designed to make processing of high pressure SCμXRD easier and more reliable.

Belle II Software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuhr, T; Ritter, M

2016-01-01

Belle II is a next generation B factory experiment that will collect 50 times more data than its predecessor, Belle. The higher luminosity at the SuperKEKB accelerator leads to higher background levels and requires a major upgrade of the detector. As a consequence, the simulation, reconstruction, and analysis software must also be upgraded substantially. Most of the software has been redesigned from scratch, taking into account the experience from Belle and other experiments and utilizing new technologies. The large amount of experimental and simulated data requires a high level of reliability and reproducibility, even in parallel environments. Several technologies, tools, and organizational measures are employed to evaluate and monitor the performance of the software during development. (paper)

Intercomparison of gamma ray analysis software packages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-04-01

The IAEA undertook an intercomparison exercise to review available software for gamma ray spectra analysis. This document describes the methods used in the intercomparison exercise, characterizes the software packages reviewed and presents the results obtained. Only direct results are given without any recommendation for a particular software or method for gamma ray spectra analysis

Computer-aided reliability and risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leicht, R.; Wingender, H.J.

1989-01-01

Activities in the fields of reliability and risk analyses have led to the development of particular software tools which now are combined in the PC-based integrated CARARA system. The options available in this system cover a wide range of reliability-oriented tasks, like organizing raw failure data in the component/event data bank FDB, performing statistical analysis of those data with the program FDA, managing the resulting parameters in the reliability data bank RDB, and performing fault tree analysis with the fault tree code FTL or evaluating the risk of toxic or radioactive material release with the STAR code. (orig.)

Development of a test rig and its application for validation and reliability testing of safety-critical software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thai, N D; McDonald, A M [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Mississauga, ON (Canada)

1996-12-31

This paper describes a versatile test rig developed by AECL for functional testing of safety-critical software used in the process trip computers of the Wolsong CANDU stations. The description covers the hardware and software aspects of the test rig, the test language and its interpreter, and other major testing software utilities such as the test oracle, sampler and profiler. The paper also discusses the application of the rig in the final stages of testing of the process trip computer software, namely validation and reliability tests. It shows how random test cases are generated, test scripts prepared and automatically run on the test rig. The versatility of the rig is further demonstrated in other types of testing such as sub-system tests, verification of the test oracle, testing of newly-developed test script, self-test and calibration. (author). 5 tabs., 10 figs.

Development of a test rig and its application for validation and reliability testing of safety-critical software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thai, N.D.; McDonald, A.M.

1995-01-01

This paper describes a versatile test rig developed by AECL for functional testing of safety-critical software used in the process trip computers of the Wolsong CANDU stations. The description covers the hardware and software aspects of the test rig, the test language and its interpreter, and other major testing software utilities such as the test oracle, sampler and profiler. The paper also discusses the application of the rig in the final stages of testing of the process trip computer software, namely validation and reliability tests. It shows how random test cases are generated, test scripts prepared and automatically run on the test rig. The versatility of the rig is further demonstrated in other types of testing such as sub-system tests, verification of the test oracle, testing of newly-developed test script, self-test and calibration. (author). 5 tabs., 10 figs

Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE), Version 5.0: Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS) reference manual. Volume 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, K.D.; Kvarfordt, K.J.; Skinner, N.L.; Wood, S.T.; Rasmuson, D.M.

1994-07-01

The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) refers to a set of several microcomputer programs that were developed to create and analyze probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs), primarily for nuclear power plants. The Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS) is a state-of-the-art, microcomputer-based probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) model development and analysis tool to address key nuclear plant safety issues. IRRAS is an integrated software tool that gives the use the ability to create and analyze fault trees and accident sequences using a microcomputer. This program provides functions that range from graphical fault tree construction to cut set generation and quantification to report generation. Version 1.0 of the IRRAS program was released in February of 1987. Since then, many user comments and enhancements have been incorporated into the program providing a much more powerful and user-friendly system. This version has been designated IRRAS 5.0 and is the subject of this Reference Manual. Version 5.0 of IRRAS provides the same capabilities as earlier versions and ads the ability to perform location transformations, seismic analysis, and provides enhancements to the user interface as well as improved algorithm performance. Additionally, version 5.0 contains new alphanumeric fault tree and event used for event tree rules, recovery rules, and end state partitioning

Addressing Software Engineering Issues in Real-Time Software ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Addressing Software Engineering Issues in Real-Time Software ... systems, manufacturing process, process control, military, space exploration, and ... but also physical properties such as timeliness, Quality of Service and reliability.

An Accurate FFPA-PSR Estimator Algorithm and Tool for Software Effort Estimation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Senthil Kumar Murugesan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Software companies are now keen to provide secure software with respect to accuracy and reliability of their products especially related to the software effort estimation. Therefore, there is a need to develop a hybrid tool which provides all the necessary features. This paper attempts to propose a hybrid estimator algorithm and model which incorporates quality metrics, reliability factor, and the security factor with a fuzzy-based function point analysis. Initially, this method utilizes a fuzzy-based estimate to control the uncertainty in the software size with the help of a triangular fuzzy set at the early development stage. Secondly, the function point analysis is extended by the security and reliability factors in the calculation. Finally, the performance metrics are added with the effort estimation for accuracy. The experimentation is done with different project data sets on the hybrid tool, and the results are compared with the existing models. It shows that the proposed method not only improves the accuracy but also increases the reliability, as well as the security, of the product.

Reliability of a computer software angle tool for measuring spine and pelvic flexibility during the sit-and-reach test.

Science.gov (United States)

Mier, Constance M; Shapiro, Belinda S

2013-02-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of a computer software angle tool that measures thoracic (T), lumbar (L), and pelvic (P) angles as a means of evaluating spine and pelvic flexibility during the sit-and-reach (SR) test. Thirty adults performed the SR twice on separate days. The SR test was captured on video and later analyzed for T, L, and P angles using the computer software angle tool. During the test, 3 markers were placed over T1, T12, and L5 vertebrae to identify T, L, and P angles. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) indicated a very high internal consistency (between trials) for T, L, and P angles (0.95-0.99); thus, the average of trials was used for test-retest (between days) reliability. Mean (±SD) values did not differ between days for T (51.0 ± 14.3 vs. 52.3 ± 16.2°), L (23.9 ± 7.1 vs. 23.0 ± 6.9°), or P (98.4 ± 15.6 vs. 98.3 ± 14.7°) angles. Test-retest reliability (ICC) was high for T (0.96) and P (0.97) angles and moderate for L angle (0.84). Both intrarater and interrater reliabilities were high for T (0.95, 0.94) and P (0.97, 0.97) angles and moderate for L angle (0.87, 0.82). Thus, the computer software angle tool is a highly objective method for assessing spine and pelvic flexibility during a video-captured SR test.

Software as quality product

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enders, A.

1975-01-01

In many discussions on the reliability of computer systems, software is presented as the weak link in the chain. The contribution attempts to identify the reasons for this situation as seen from the software development. The concepts correctness and reliability of programmes are explained as they are understood in the specialist discussion of today. Measures and methods are discussed which are particularly relevant as far as the obtaining of fault-free and reliable programmes is concerned. Conclusions are drawn for the user of software so that he is in the position to judge himself what can be justly expected frm the product software compared to other products. (orig./LH) [de

Reliability

OpenAIRE

Condon, David; Revelle, William

2017-01-01

Separating the signal in a test from the irrelevant noise is a challenge for all measurement. Low test reliability limits test validity, attenuates important relationships, and can lead to regression artifacts. Multiple approaches to the assessment and improvement of reliability are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of several different approaches to reliability are considered. Practical advice on how to assess reliability using open source software is provided.

Reliability of lower limb alignment measures using an established landmark-based method with a customized computer software program

Science.gov (United States)

Sled, Elizabeth A.; Sheehy, Lisa M.; Felson, David T.; Costigan, Patrick A.; Lam, Miu; Cooke, T. Derek V.

2010-01-01

The objective of the study was to evaluate the reliability of frontal plane lower limb alignment measures using a landmark-based method by (1) comparing inter- and intra-reader reliability between measurements of alignment obtained manually with those using a computer program, and (2) determining inter- and intra-reader reliability of computer-assisted alignment measures from full-limb radiographs. An established method for measuring alignment was used, involving selection of 10 femoral and tibial bone landmarks. 1) To compare manual and computer methods, we used digital images and matching paper copies of five alignment patterns simulating healthy and malaligned limbs drawn using AutoCAD. Seven readers were trained in each system. Paper copies were measured manually and repeat measurements were performed daily for 3 days, followed by a similar routine with the digital images using the computer. 2) To examine the reliability of computer-assisted measures from full-limb radiographs, 100 images (200 limbs) were selected as a random sample from 1,500 full-limb digital radiographs which were part of the Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) Study. Three trained readers used the software program to measure alignment twice from the batch of 100 images, with two or more weeks between batch handling. Manual and computer measures of alignment showed excellent agreement (intraclass correlations [ICCs] 0.977 – 0.999 for computer analysis; 0.820 – 0.995 for manual measures). The computer program applied to full-limb radiographs produced alignment measurements with high inter- and intra-reader reliability (ICCs 0.839 – 0.998). In conclusion, alignment measures using a bone landmark-based approach and a computer program were highly reliable between multiple readers. PMID:19882339

Software-assisted small bowel motility analysis using free-breathing MRI: feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bickelhaupt, Sebastian; Froehlich, Johannes M; Cattin, Roger; Raible, Stephan; Bouquet, Hanspeter; Bill, Urs; Patak, Michael A

2014-01-01

To validate a software prototype allowing for small bowel motility analysis in free breathing by comparing it to manual measurements. In all, 25 patients (15 male, 10 female; mean age 39 years) were included in this Institutional Review Board-approved, retrospective study. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on a 1.5T system after standardized preparation acquiring motility sequences in free breathing over 69-84 seconds. Small bowel motility was analyzed manually and with the software. Functional parameters, measurement time, and reproducibility were compared using the coefficient of variance and paired Student's t-test. Correlation was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear regression. The 25 segments were analyzed twice both by hand and using the software with automatic breathing correction. All assessed parameters significantly correlated between the methods (P software (3.90%, standard deviation [SD] ± 5.69) than manual examinations (9.77%, SD ± 11.08). The time needed was significantly less (P software (4.52 minutes, SD ± 1.58) compared to manual measurement, lasting 17.48 minutes for manual (SD ± 1.75 minutes). The use of the software proves reliable and faster small bowel motility measurements in free-breathing MRI compared to manual analyses. The new technique allows for analyses of prolonged sequences acquired in free breathing, improving the informative value of the examinations by amplifying the evaluable data. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intra-observer reliability and agreement of manual and digital orthodontic model analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Koretsi, Vasiliki; Tingelhoff, Linda; Proff, Peter; Kirschneck, Christian

2018-01-23

Digital orthodontic model analysis is gaining acceptance in orthodontics, but its reliability is dependent on the digitalisation hardware and software used. We thus investigated intra-observer reliability and agreement / conformity of a particular digital model analysis work-flow in relation to traditional manual plaster model analysis. Forty-eight plaster casts of the upper/lower dentition were collected. Virtual models were obtained with orthoX®scan (Dentaurum) and analysed with ivoris®analyze3D (Computer konkret). Manual model analyses were done with a dial caliper (0.1 mm). Common parameters were measured on each plaster cast and its virtual counterpart five times each by an experienced observer. We assessed intra-observer reliability within method (ICC), agreement/conformity between methods (Bland-Altman analyses and Lin's concordance correlation), and changing bias (regression analyses). Intra-observer reliability was substantial within each method (ICC ≥ 0.7), except for five manual outcomes (12.8 per cent). Bias between methods was statistically significant, but less than 0.5 mm for 87.2 per cent of the outcomes. In general, larger tooth sizes were measured digitally. Total difference maxilla and mandible had wide limits of agreement (-3.25/6.15 and -2.31/4.57 mm), but bias between methods was mostly smaller than intra-observer variation within each method with substantial conformity of manual and digital measurements in general. No changing bias was detected. Although both work-flows were reliable, the investigated digital work-flow proved to be more reliable and yielded on average larger tooth sizes. Averaged differences between methods were within 0.5 mm for directly measured outcomes but wide ranges are expected for some computed space parameters due to cumulative error. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Power system reliability analysis using fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volkanovski, A.; Cepin, M.; Mavko, B.

2006-01-01

The power system reliability analysis method is developed from the aspect of reliable delivery of electrical energy to customers. The method is developed based on the fault tree analysis, which is widely applied in the Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). The method is adapted for the power system reliability analysis. The method is developed in a way that only the basic reliability parameters of the analysed power system are necessary as an input for the calculation of reliability indices of the system. The modeling and analysis was performed on an example power system consisting of eight substations. The results include the level of reliability of current power system configuration, the combinations of component failures resulting in a failed power delivery to loads, and the importance factors for components and subsystems. (author)

Development of a User Interface for a Regression Analysis Software Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Ulbrich, Norbert Manfred; Volden, Thomas R.

2010-01-01

An easy-to -use user interface was implemented in a highly automated regression analysis tool. The user interface was developed from the start to run on computers that use the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or UNIX operating system. Many user interface features were specifically designed such that a novice or inexperienced user can apply the regression analysis tool with confidence. Therefore, the user interface s design minimizes interactive input from the user. In addition, reasonable default combinations are assigned to those analysis settings that influence the outcome of the regression analysis. These default combinations will lead to a successful regression analysis result for most experimental data sets. The user interface comes in two versions. The text user interface version is used for the ongoing development of the regression analysis tool. The official release of the regression analysis tool, on the other hand, has a graphical user interface that is more efficient to use. This graphical user interface displays all input file names, output file names, and analysis settings for a specific software application mode on a single screen which makes it easier to generate reliable analysis results and to perform input parameter studies. An object-oriented approach was used for the development of the graphical user interface. This choice keeps future software maintenance costs to a reasonable limit. Examples of both the text user interface and graphical user interface are discussed in order to illustrate the user interface s overall design approach.

Software criticality analysis of COTS/SOUP

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bishop, Peter; Bloomfield, Robin; Clement, Tim; Guerra, Sofia

2003-09-01

This paper describes the Software Criticality Analysis (SCA) approach that was developed to support the justification of using commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) in a safety-related system. The primary objective of SCA is to assess the importance to safety of the software components within the COTS and to show there is segregation between software components with different safety importance. The approach taken was a combination of Hazops based on design documents and on a detailed analysis of the actual code (100 kloc). Considerable effort was spent on validation and ensuring the conservative nature of the results. The results from reverse engineering from the code showed that results based only on architecture and design documents would have been misleading.

Software criticality analysis of COTS/SOUP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bishop, Peter; Bloomfield, Robin; Clement, Tim; Guerra, Sofia

2003-01-01

This paper describes the Software Criticality Analysis (SCA) approach that was developed to support the justification of using commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) in a safety-related system. The primary objective of SCA is to assess the importance to safety of the software components within the COTS and to show there is segregation between software components with different safety importance. The approach taken was a combination of Hazops based on design documents and on a detailed analysis of the actual code (100 kloc). Considerable effort was spent on validation and ensuring the conservative nature of the results. The results from reverse engineering from the code showed that results based only on architecture and design documents would have been misleading

Estimation of Remained defects in a Safety-Critical Software using Bayesian Belief Network of Software Development Life Cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Jun; Jung, Wondea Jung

2015-01-01

Some researchers recognized Bayesian belief network (BBN) method to be a promising method of quantifying software reliability. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) comprehensively reviewed various quantitative software reliability methods to identify the most promising methods for use in probabilistic safety assessments (PSAs) of digital systems of NPPs against a set of the most desirable characteristics developed therein. BBNs are recognized as a promising way of quantifying software reliability and are useful for integrating many aspects of software engineering and quality assurance. The method explicitly incorporates important factors relevant to reliability, such as the quality of the developer, the development process, problem complexity, testing effort, and the operation environment. In this work, a BBN model was developed to estimate the number of remained defects in a safety-critical software based on the quality evaluation of software development life cycle (SDLC). Even though a number of software reliability evaluation methods exist, none of them can be applicable to the safety-critical software in an NPP because software quality in terms of PDF is required for the PSA

Operator reliability assessment system (OPERAS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, A.; Spurgin, A.J.; Martin, T.; Welsch, J.; Hallam, J.W.

1991-01-01

OPERAS is a personal-computer (PC) based software to collect and process simulator data on control-room operators responses during requalification training scenarios. The data collection scheme is based upon approach developed earlier during the EPRI Operator Reliability Experiments project. The software allows automated data collection from simulator, thus minimizing simulator staff time and resources to collect, maintain and process data which can be useful in monitoring, assessing and enhancing the progress of crew reliability and effectiveness. The system is designed to provide the data and output information in the form of user-friendly charts, tables and figures for use by plant staff. OPERAS prototype software has been implemented at the Diablo Canyon (PWR) and Millstone (BWR) plants and is currently being used to collect operator response data. Data collected from similator include plant-state variables such as reactor pressure and temperature, malfunction, times at which annunciators are activated, operator actions and observations of crew behavior by training staff. The data and systematic analytical results provided by the OPERAS system can contribute to increase objectivity by the utility probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) and training staff in monitoring and assessing reliability of their crews

Acoustic Emission Analysis Applet (AEAA) Software

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Charles T.; Roth, Don J.

2013-01-01

NASA Glenn Research and NASA White Sands Test Facility have developed software supporting an automated pressure vessel structural health monitoring (SHM) system based on acoustic emissions (AE). The software, referred to as the Acoustic Emission Analysis Applet (AEAA), provides analysts with a tool that can interrogate data collected on Digital Wave Corp. and Physical Acoustics Corp. software using a wide spectrum of powerful filters and charts. This software can be made to work with any data once the data format is known. The applet will compute basic AE statistics, and statistics as a function of time and pressure (see figure). AEAA provides value added beyond the analysis provided by the respective vendors' analysis software. The software can handle data sets of unlimited size. A wide variety of government and commercial applications could benefit from this technology, notably requalification and usage tests for compressed gas and hydrogen-fueled vehicles. Future enhancements will add features similar to a "check engine" light on a vehicle. Once installed, the system will ultimately be used to alert International Space Station crewmembers to critical structural instabilities, but will have little impact to missions otherwise. Diagnostic information could then be transmitted to experienced technicians on the ground in a timely manner to determine whether pressure vessels have been impacted, are structurally unsound, or can be safely used to complete the mission.

PROOF OF CONCEPT FOR A HUMAN RELIABILITY ANALYSIS METHOD FOR HEURISTIC USABILITY EVALUATION OF SOFTWARE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ronald L. Boring; David I. Gertman; Jeffrey C. Joe; Julie L. Marble

2005-01-01

An ongoing issue within human-computer interaction (HCI) is the need for simplified or ''discount'' methods. The current economic slowdown has necessitated innovative methods that are results driven and cost effective. The myriad methods of design and usability are currently being cost-justified, and new techniques are actively being explored that meet current budgets and needs. Recent efforts in human reliability analysis (HRA) are highlighted by the ten-year development of the Standardized Plant Analysis Risk HRA (SPAR-H) method. The SPAR-H method has been used primarily for determining human centered risk at nuclear power plants. The SPAR-H method, however, shares task analysis underpinnings with HCI. Despite this methodological overlap, there is currently no HRA approach deployed in heuristic usability evaluation. This paper presents an extension of the existing SPAR-H method to be used as part of heuristic usability evaluation in HCI

Software safety analysis practice in installation phase

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, H. W.; Chen, M. H.; Shyu, S. S., E-mail: hwhwang@iner.gov.t [Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, No. 1000 Wenhua Road, Chiaan Village, Longtan Township, 32546 Taoyuan County, Taiwan (China)

2010-10-15

This work performed a software safety analysis in the installation phase of the Lung men nuclear power plant in Taiwan, under the cooperation of Institute of Nuclear Energy Research and Tpc. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission requests licensee to perform software safety analysis and software verification and validation in each phase of software development life cycle with Branch Technical Position 7-14. In this work, 37 safety grade digital instrumentation and control systems were analyzed by failure mode and effects analysis, which is suggested by IEEE standard 7-4.3.2-2003. During the installation phase, skew tests for safety grade network and point to point tests were performed. The failure mode and effects analysis showed all the single failure modes can be resolved by the redundant means. Most of the common mode failures can be resolved by operator manual actions. (Author)

Software safety analysis practice in installation phase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, H. W.; Chen, M. H.; Shyu, S. S.

2010-10-01

This work performed a software safety analysis in the installation phase of the Lung men nuclear power plant in Taiwan, under the cooperation of Institute of Nuclear Energy Research and Tpc. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission requests licensee to perform software safety analysis and software verification and validation in each phase of software development life cycle with Branch Technical Position 7-14. In this work, 37 safety grade digital instrumentation and control systems were analyzed by failure mode and effects analysis, which is suggested by IEEE standard 7-4.3.2-2003. During the installation phase, skew tests for safety grade network and point to point tests were performed. The failure mode and effects analysis showed all the single failure modes can be resolved by the redundant means. Most of the common mode failures can be resolved by operator manual actions. (Author)

Reliability Testing Using the Vehicle Durability Simulator

Science.gov (United States)

2017-11-20

techniques are employed to reduce test and simulation time. Through application of these processes and techniques the reliability characteristics...remote parameter control (RPC) software. The software is specifically designed for the data collection, analysis, and simulation processes outlined in...the selection process for determining the desired runs for simulation . 4.3 Drive File Development. After the data have been reviewed and

Probabilistic safety assessment of Tehran Research Reactor using systems analysis programs for hands-on integrated reliability evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosseini, M.H.; Nematollahi, M.R.; Sepanloo, K.

2004-01-01

Probabilistic safety assessment application is found to be a practical tool for research reactor safety due to intense involvement of human interactions in an experimental facility. In this document the application of the probabilistic safety assessment to the Tehran Research Reactor is presented. The level 1 practicabilities safety assessment application involved: Familiarization with the plant, selection of accident initiators, mitigating functions and system definitions, event tree constructions and quantifications, fault tree constructions and quantification, human reliability, component failure data base development and dependent failure analysis. Each of the steps of the analysis given above is discussed with highlights from the selected results. Quantification of the constructed models is done using systems analysis programs for hands-on integrated reliability evaluations software

Reliability analysis under epistemic uncertainty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nannapaneni, Saideep; Mahadevan, Sankaran

2016-01-01

This paper proposes a probabilistic framework to include both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty within model-based reliability estimation of engineering systems for individual limit states. Epistemic uncertainty is considered due to both data and model sources. Sparse point and/or interval data regarding the input random variables leads to uncertainty regarding their distribution types, distribution parameters, and correlations; this statistical uncertainty is included in the reliability analysis through a combination of likelihood-based representation, Bayesian hypothesis testing, and Bayesian model averaging techniques. Model errors, which include numerical solution errors and model form errors, are quantified through Gaussian process models and included in the reliability analysis. The probability integral transform is used to develop an auxiliary variable approach that facilitates a single-level representation of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. This strategy results in an efficient single-loop implementation of Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and FORM/SORM techniques for reliability estimation under both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. Two engineering examples are used to demonstrate the proposed methodology. - Highlights: • Epistemic uncertainty due to data and model included in reliability analysis. • A novel FORM-based approach proposed to include aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. • A single-loop Monte Carlo approach proposed to include both types of uncertainties. • Two engineering examples used for illustration.

Software development for teleroentgenogram analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Goshkoderov, A. A.; Khlebnikov, N. A.; Obabkov, I. N.; Serkov, K. V.; Gajniyarov, I. M.; Aliev, A. A.

2017-09-01

A framework for the analysis and calculation of teleroentgenograms was developed. Software development was carried out in the Department of Children's Dentistry and Orthodontics in Ural State Medical University. The software calculates the teleroentgenogram by the original method which was developed in this medical department. Program allows designing its own methods for calculating the teleroentgenograms by new methods. It is planned to use the technology of machine learning (Neural networks) in the software. This will help to make the process of calculating the teleroentgenograms easier because methodological points will be placed automatically.

Reliability analysis techniques for the design engineer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Corran, E.R.; Witt, H.H.

1982-01-01

This paper describes a fault tree analysis package that eliminates most of the housekeeping tasks involved in proceeding from the initial construction of a fault tree to the final stage of presenting a reliability analysis in a safety report. It is suitable for designers with relatively little training in reliability analysis and computer operation. Users can rapidly investigate the reliability implications of various options at the design stage and evolve a system which meets specified reliability objectives. Later independent review is thus unlikely to reveal major shortcomings necessitating modification and project delays. The package operates interactively, allowing the user to concentrate on the creative task of developing the system fault tree, which may be modified and displayed graphically. For preliminary analysis, system data can be derived automatically from a generic data bank. As the analysis proceeds, improved estimates of critical failure rates and test and maintenance schedules can be inserted. The technique is applied to the reliability analysis of the recently upgraded HIFAR Containment Isolation System. (author)

ROCKETSHIP: a flexible and modular software tool for the planning, processing and analysis of dynamic MRI studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, Samuel R.; Ng, Thomas S. C.; Santa-Maria, Naomi; Montagne, Axel; Zlokovic, Berislav V.; Jacobs, Russell E.

2015-01-01

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is a promising technique to characterize pathology and evaluate treatment response. However, analysis of DCE-MRI data is complex and benefits from concurrent analysis of multiple kinetic models and parameters. Few software tools are currently available that specifically focuses on DCE-MRI analysis with multiple kinetic models. Here, we developed ROCKETSHIP, an open-source, flexible and modular software for DCE-MRI analysis. ROCKETSHIP incorporates analyses with multiple kinetic models, including data-driven nested model analysis. ROCKETSHIP was implemented using the MATLAB programming language. Robustness of the software to provide reliable fits using multiple kinetic models is demonstrated using simulated data. Simulations also demonstrate the utility of the data-driven nested model analysis. Applicability of ROCKETSHIP for both preclinical and clinical studies is shown using DCE-MRI studies of the human brain and a murine tumor model. A DCE-MRI software suite was implemented and tested using simulations. Its applicability to both preclinical and clinical datasets is shown. ROCKETSHIP was designed to be easily accessible for the beginner, but flexible enough for changes or additions to be made by the advanced user as well. The availability of a flexible analysis tool will aid future studies using DCE-MRI. A public release of ROCKETSHIP is available at (https://github.com/petmri/ROCKETSHIP)

A reliability analysis tool for SpaceWire network

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Qiang; Zhu, Longjiang; Fei, Haidong; Wang, Xingyou

2017-04-01

A SpaceWire is a standard for on-board satellite networks as the basis for future data-handling architectures. It is becoming more and more popular in space applications due to its technical advantages, including reliability, low power and fault protection, etc. High reliability is the vital issue for spacecraft. Therefore, it is very important to analyze and improve the reliability performance of the SpaceWire network. This paper deals with the problem of reliability modeling and analysis with SpaceWire network. According to the function division of distributed network, a reliability analysis method based on a task is proposed, the reliability analysis of every task can lead to the system reliability matrix, the reliability result of the network system can be deduced by integrating these entire reliability indexes in the matrix. With the method, we develop a reliability analysis tool for SpaceWire Network based on VC, where the computation schemes for reliability matrix and the multi-path-task reliability are also implemented. By using this tool, we analyze several cases on typical architectures. And the analytic results indicate that redundancy architecture has better reliability performance than basic one. In practical, the dual redundancy scheme has been adopted for some key unit, to improve the reliability index of the system or task. Finally, this reliability analysis tool will has a directive influence on both task division and topology selection in the phase of SpaceWire network system design.

Analysis of information security reliability: A tutorial

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondakci, Suleyman

2015-01-01

This article presents a concise reliability analysis of network security abstracted from stochastic modeling, reliability, and queuing theories. Network security analysis is composed of threats, their impacts, and recovery of the failed systems. A unique framework with a collection of the key reliability models is presented here to guide the determination of the system reliability based on the strength of malicious acts and performance of the recovery processes. A unique model, called Attack-obstacle model, is also proposed here for analyzing systems with immunity growth features. Most computer science curricula do not contain courses in reliability modeling applicable to different areas of computer engineering. Hence, the topic of reliability analysis is often too diffuse to most computer engineers and researchers dealing with network security. This work is thus aimed at shedding some light on this issue, which can be useful in identifying models, their assumptions and practical parameters for estimating the reliability of threatened systems and for assessing the performance of recovery facilities. It can also be useful for the classification of processes and states regarding the reliability of information systems. Systems with stochastic behaviors undergoing queue operations and random state transitions can also benefit from the approaches presented here. - Highlights: • A concise survey and tutorial in model-based reliability analysis applicable to information security. • A framework of key modeling approaches for assessing reliability of networked systems. • The framework facilitates quantitative risk assessment tasks guided by stochastic modeling and queuing theory. • Evaluation of approaches and models for modeling threats, failures, impacts, and recovery analysis of information systems

The application of formal software engineering methods to the unattended and remote monitoring software suite at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Determan, John Clifford [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Longo, Joseph F [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Michel, Kelly D [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

The Unattended and Remote Monitoring (UNARM) system is a collection of specialized hardware and software used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to institute nuclear safeguards at many nuclear facilities around the world. The hardware consists of detectors, instruments, and networked computers for acquiring various forms of data, including but not limited to radiation data, global position coordinates, camera images, isotopic data, and operator declarations. The software provides two primary functions: the secure and reliable collection of this data from the instruments and the ability to perform an integrated review and analysis of the disparate data sources. Several years ago the team responsible for maintaining the software portion of the UNARM system began the process of formalizing its operations. These formal operations include a configuration management system, a change control board, an issue tracking system, and extensive formal testing, for both functionality and reliability. Functionality is tested with formal test cases chosen to fully represent the data types and methods of analysis that will be commonly encountered. Reliability is tested with iterative, concurrent testing where up to five analyses are executed simultaneously for thousands of cycles. Iterative concurrent testing helps ensure that there are no resource conflicts or leaks when multiple system components are in use simultaneously. The goal of this work is to provide a high quality, reliable product, commensurate with the criticality of the application. Testing results will be presented that demonstrate that this goal has been achieved and the impact of the introduction of a formal software engineering framework to the UNARM product will be presented.

Inter- and Intrarater Reliability Using Different Software Versions of E4D Compare in Dental Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Callan, Richard S; Cooper, Jeril R; Young, Nancy B; Mollica, Anthony G; Furness, Alan R; Looney, Stephen W

2015-06-01

The problems associated with intra- and interexaminer reliability when assessing preclinical performance continue to hinder dental educators' ability to provide accurate and meaningful feedback to students. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the validity of utilizing various technologies to assist educators in achieving that goal. The purpose of this study was to compare two different versions of E4D Compare software to determine if either could be expected to deliver consistent and reliable comparative results, independent of the individual utilizing the technology. Five faculty members obtained E4D digital images of students' attempts (sample model) at ideal gold crown preparations for tooth #30 performed on typodont teeth. These images were compared to an ideal (master model) preparation utilizing two versions of E4D Compare software. The percent correlations between and within these faculty members were recorded and averaged. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to measure both inter- and intrarater agreement among the examiners. The study found that using the older version of E4D Compare did not result in acceptable intra- or interrater agreement among the examiners. However, the newer version of E4D Compare, when combined with the Nevo scanner, resulted in a remarkable degree of agreement both between and within the examiners. These results suggest that consistent and reliable results can be expected when utilizing this technology under the protocol described in this study.

Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems (STARS)

Science.gov (United States)

1994-03-25

Tmeline(3), SECOMO(3), SEER(3), GSFC Software Engineering Lab Model(l), SLIM(4), SEER-SEM(l), SPQR (2), PRICE-S(2), internally-developed models(3), APMSS(1...3 " Timeline - 3 " SASET (Software Architecture Sizing Estimating Tool) - 2 " MicroMan 11- 2 * LCM (Logistics Cost Model) - 2 * SPQR - 2 * PRICE-S - 2

Numerical methods in software and analysis

CERN Document Server

Rice, John R

1992-01-01

Numerical Methods, Software, and Analysis, Second Edition introduces science and engineering students to the methods, tools, and ideas of numerical computation. Introductory courses in numerical methods face a fundamental problem-there is too little time to learn too much. This text solves that problem by using high-quality mathematical software. In fact, the objective of the text is to present scientific problem solving using standard mathematical software. This book discusses numerous programs and software packages focusing on the IMSL library (including the PROTRAN system) and ACM Algorithm

Use of PRA methodology for enhancing operational safety and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chu, B.; Rumble, E.; Najafi, B.; Putney, B.; Young, J.

1985-01-01

This paper describes a broad scope, on-going R and D study, sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to utilize key features of the state-of-the-art plant information management and system analysis techniques to develop and demonstrate a practical engineering tool for assisting plant engineering and operational staff to perform their activities more effectively. The study is foreseen to consist of two major activities: to develop a user-friendly, integrated software system; and to demonstrate the applications of this software on-site. This integrated software, Reliability Analysis Program with In-Plant Data (RAPID), will consist of three types of interrelated elements: an Executive Controller which will provide engineering and operations staff users with interface and control of the other two software elements, a Data Base Manager which can acquire, store, select, and transfer data, and Applications Modules which will perform the specific reliability-oriented functions. A broad range of these functions has been envisaged. The immediate emphasis will be focused on four application modules: a Plant Status Module, a Technical Specification Optimization Module, a Reliability Assessment Module, and a Utility Module for acquiring plant data

Software for Graph Analysis and Visualization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. I. Kolomeychenko

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the software for graph storage, analysis and visualization. The article presents a comparative analysis of existing software for analysis and visualization of graphs, describes the overall architecture of application and basic principles of construction and operation of the main modules. Furthermore, a description of the developed graph storage oriented to storage and processing of large-scale graphs is presented. The developed algorithm for finding communities and implemented algorithms of autolayouts of graphs are the main functionality of the product. The main advantage of the developed software is high speed processing of large size networks (up to millions of nodes and links. Moreover, the proposed graph storage architecture is unique and has no analogues. The developed approaches and algorithms are optimized for operating with big graphs and have high productivity.

GWAMA: software for genome-wide association meta-analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mägi Reedik

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite the recent success of genome-wide association studies in identifying novel loci contributing effects to complex human traits, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, much of the genetic component of variation in these phenotypes remains unexplained. One way to improving power to detect further novel loci is through meta-analysis of studies from the same population, increasing the sample size over any individual study. Although statistical software analysis packages incorporate routines for meta-analysis, they are ill equipped to meet the challenges of the scale and complexity of data generated in genome-wide association studies. Results We have developed flexible, open-source software for the meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. The software incorporates a variety of error trapping facilities, and provides a range of meta-analysis summary statistics. The software is distributed with scripts that allow simple formatting of files containing the results of each association study and generate graphical summaries of genome-wide meta-analysis results. Conclusions The GWAMA (Genome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis software has been developed to perform meta-analysis of summary statistics generated from genome-wide association studies of dichotomous phenotypes or quantitative traits. Software with source files, documentation and example data files are freely available online at http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/GWAMA.

Improving the Reliability of Decision-Support Systems for Nuclear Emergency Management by Leveraging Software Design Diversity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tudor B. Ionescu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces a novel method of continuous verification of simulation software used in decision-support systems for nuclear emergency management (DSNE. The proposed approach builds on methods from the field of software reliability engineering, such as N-Version Programming, Recovery Blocks, and Consensus Recovery Blocks. We introduce a new acceptance test for dispersion simulation results and a new voting scheme based on taxonomies of simulation results rather than individual simulation results. The acceptance test and the voter are used in a new scheme, which extends the Consensus Recovery Block method by a database of result taxonomies to support machine-learning. This enables the system to learn how to distinguish correct from incorrect results, with respect to the implemented numerical schemes. Considering that decision-support systems for nuclear emergency management are used in a safety-critical application context, the methods introduced in this paper help improve the reliability of the system and the trustworthiness of the simulation results used by emergency managers in the decision making process. The effectiveness of the approach has been assessed using the atmospheric dispersion forecasts of two test versions of the widely used RODOS DSNE system.

Field Programmable Gate Array Reliability Analysis Guidelines for Launch Vehicle Reliability Block Diagrams

Science.gov (United States)

Al Hassan, Mohammad; Britton, Paul; Hatfield, Glen Spencer; Novack, Steven D.

2017-01-01

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) integrated circuits (IC) are one of the key electronic components in today's sophisticated launch and space vehicle complex avionic systems, largely due to their superb reprogrammable and reconfigurable capabilities combined with relatively low non-recurring engineering costs (NRE) and short design cycle. Consequently, FPGAs are prevalent ICs in communication protocols and control signal commands. This paper will identify reliability concerns and high level guidelines to estimate FPGA total failure rates in a launch vehicle application. The paper will discuss hardware, hardware description language, and radiation induced failures. The hardware contribution of the approach accounts for physical failures of the IC. The hardware description language portion will discuss the high level FPGA programming languages and software/code reliability growth. The radiation portion will discuss FPGA susceptibility to space environment radiation.

Reliability Analysis of Adhesive Bonded Scarf Joints

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kimiaeifar, Amin; Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Lund, Erik

2012-01-01

element analysis (FEA). For the reliability analysis a design equation is considered which is related to a deterministic code-based design equation where reliability is secured by partial safety factors together with characteristic values for the material properties and loads. The failure criteria......A probabilistic model for the reliability analysis of adhesive bonded scarfed lap joints subjected to static loading is developed. It is representative for the main laminate in a wind turbine blade subjected to flapwise bending. The structural analysis is based on a three dimensional (3D) finite...... are formulated using a von Mises, a modified von Mises and a maximum stress failure criterion. The reliability level is estimated for the scarfed lap joint and this is compared with the target reliability level implicitly used in the wind turbine standard IEC 61400-1. A convergence study is performed to validate...

Reliability analysis and operator modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollnagel, Erik

1996-01-01

The paper considers the state of operator modelling in reliability analysis. Operator models are needed in reliability analysis because operators are needed in process control systems. HRA methods must therefore be able to account both for human performance variability and for the dynamics of the interaction. A selected set of first generation HRA approaches is briefly described in terms of the operator model they use, their classification principle, and the actual method they propose. In addition, two examples of second generation methods are also considered. It is concluded that first generation HRA methods generally have very simplistic operator models, either referring to the time-reliability relationship or to elementary information processing concepts. It is argued that second generation HRA methods must recognise that cognition is embedded in a context, and be able to account for that in the way human reliability is analysed and assessed

Research on the evaluation model of the software reliability in nuclear safety class digital instrumentation and control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Ying; Yang Ming; Li Fengjun; Ma Zhanguo; Zeng Hai

2014-01-01

In order to analyze the software reliability (SR) in nuclear safety class digital instrumentation and control system (D-I and C), firstly, the international software design standards were analyzed, the standards' framework was built, and we found that the D-I and C software standards should follow the NUREG-0800 BTP7-14, according to the NRC NUREG-0800 review of requirements. Secondly, the quantitative evaluation model of SR using Bayesian Belief Network and thirteen sub-model frameworks were established. Thirdly, each sub-models and the weight of corresponding indexes in the evaluation model were analyzed. Finally, the safety case was introduced. The models lay a foundation for review and quantitative evaluation on the SR in nuclear safety class D-I and C. (authors)

Reliability and validity of a novel Kinect-based software program for measuring posture, balance and side-bending.

Science.gov (United States)

Grooten, Wilhelmus Johannes Andreas; Sandberg, Lisa; Ressman, John; Diamantoglou, Nicolas; Johansson, Elin; Rasmussen-Barr, Eva

2018-01-08

Clinical examinations are subjective and often show a low validity and reliability. Objective and highly reliable quantitative assessments are available in laboratory settings using 3D motion analysis, but these systems are too expensive to use for simple clinical examinations. Qinematic™ is an interactive movement analyses system based on the Kinect camera and is an easy-to-use clinical measurement system for assessing posture, balance and side-bending. The aim of the study was to test the test-retest the reliability and construct validity of Qinematic™ in a healthy population, and to calculate the minimal clinical differences for the variables of interest. A further aim was to identify the discriminative validity of Qinematic™ in people with low-back pain (LBP). We performed a test-retest reliability study (n = 37) with around 1 week between the occasions, a construct validity study (n = 30) in which Qinematic™ was tested against a 3D motion capture system, and a discriminative validity study, in which a group of people with LBP (n = 20) was compared to healthy controls (n = 17). We tested a large range of psychometric properties of 18 variables in three sections: posture (head and pelvic position, weight distribution), balance (sway area and velocity in single- and double-leg stance), and side-bending. The majority of the variables in the posture and balance sections, showed poor/fair reliability (ICC validity (Spearman reliability (ICC =0.898), excellent validity (r = 0.943), and Qinematic™ could differentiate between LPB and healthy individuals (p = 0.012). This paper shows that a novel software program (Qinematic™) based on the Kinect camera for measuring balance, posture and side-bending has poor psychometric properties, indicating that the variables on balance and posture should not be used for monitoring individual changes over time or in research. Future research on the dynamic tasks of Qinematic™ is warranted.

A new paradigm for the development of analysis software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, D.; Harauz, J.

2012-01-01

For the CANDU industry, analysis software is an important tool for scientists and engineers to examine issues related to safety, operation, and design. However, the software quality assurance approach currently used for these tools assumes the software is the delivered product. In this paper, we present a model that shifts the emphasis from software being the end-product to software being support for the end-product, the science. We describe a novel software development paradigm that supports this shift and provides the groundwork for re-examining the quality assurance practices used for analysis software. (author)

Software Tool for Automated Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) of Hydraulic Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stecki, J. S.; Conrad, Finn; Oh, B.

2002-01-01

Offshore, marine,aircraft and other complex engineering systems operate in harsh environmental and operational conditions and must meet stringent requirements of reliability, safety and maintability. To reduce the hight costs of development of new systems in these fields improved the design...... management techniques and a vast array of computer aided techniques are applied during design and testing stages. The paper present and discusses the research and development of a software tool for automated failure mode and effects analysis - FMEA - of hydraulic systems. The paper explains the underlying...

Software engineering

CERN Document Server

Sommerville, Ian

2010-01-01

The ninth edition of Software Engineering presents a broad perspective of software engineering, focusing on the processes and techniques fundamental to the creation of reliable, software systems. Increased coverage of agile methods and software reuse, along with coverage of 'traditional' plan-driven software engineering, gives readers the most up-to-date view of the field currently available. Practical case studies, a full set of easy-to-access supplements, and extensive web resources make teaching the course easier than ever.

Culture Representation in Human Reliability Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

David Gertman; Julie Marble; Steven Novack

2006-12-01

Understanding human-system response is critical to being able to plan and predict mission success in the modern battlespace. Commonly, human reliability analysis has been used to predict failures of human performance in complex, critical systems. However, most human reliability methods fail to take culture into account. This paper takes an easily understood state of the art human reliability analysis method and extends that method to account for the influence of culture, including acceptance of new technology, upon performance. The cultural parameters used to modify the human reliability analysis were determined from two standard industry approaches to cultural assessment: Hofstede’s (1991) cultural factors and Davis’ (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM). The result is called the Culture Adjustment Method (CAM). An example is presented that (1) reviews human reliability assessment with and without cultural attributes for a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system attack, (2) demonstrates how country specific information can be used to increase the realism of HRA modeling, and (3) discusses the differences in human error probability estimates arising from cultural differences.

Software safety analysis application in installation phase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, H. W.; Yih, S.; Wang, L. H.; Liao, B. C.; Lin, J. M.; Kao, T. M.

2010-01-01

This work performed a software safety analysis (SSA) in the installation phase of the Lungmen nuclear power plant (LMNPP) in Taiwan, under the cooperation of INER and TPC. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) requests licensee to perform software safety analysis (SSA) and software verification and validation (SV and V) in each phase of software development life cycle with Branch Technical Position (BTP) 7-14. In this work, 37 safety grade digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems were analyzed by Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), which is suggested by IEEE Standard 7-4.3.2-2003. During the installation phase, skew tests for safety grade network and point to point tests were performed. The FMEA showed all the single failure modes can be resolved by the redundant means. Most of the common mode failures can be resolved by operator manual actions. (authors)

Reliability Analysis of a Steel Frame

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Sýkora

2002-01-01

Full Text Available A steel frame with haunches is designed according to Eurocodes. The frame is exposed to self-weight, snow, and wind actions. Lateral-torsional buckling appears to represent the most critical criterion, which is considered as a basis for the limit state function. In the reliability analysis, the probabilistic models proposed by the Joint Committee for Structural Safety (JCSS are used for basic variables. The uncertainty model coefficients take into account the inaccuracy of the resistance model for the haunched girder and the inaccuracy of the action effect model. The time invariant reliability analysis is based on Turkstra's rule for combinations of snow and wind actions. The time variant analysis describes snow and wind actions by jump processes with intermittencies. Assuming a 50-year lifetime, the obtained values of the reliability index b vary within the range from 3.95 up to 5.56. The cross-profile IPE 330 designed according to Eurocodes seems to be adequate. It appears that the time invariant reliability analysis based on Turkstra's rule provides considerably lower values of b than those obtained by the time variant analysis.

Reliable Software Development for Machine Protection Systems

CERN Document Server

Anderson, D; Dragu, M; Fuchsberger, K; Garnier, JC; Gorzawski, AA; Koza, M; Krol, K; Misiowiec, K; Stamos, K; Zerlauth, M

2014-01-01

The Controls software for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, with more than 150 millions lines of code, resides amongst the largest known code bases in the world1. Industry has been applying Agile software engineering techniques for more than two decades now, and the advantages of these techniques can no longer be ignored to manage the code base for large projects within the accelerator community. Furthermore, CERN is a particular environment due to the high personnel turnover and manpower limitations, where applying Agile processes can improve both, the codebase management as well as its quality. This paper presents the successful application of the Agile software development process Scrum for machine protection systems at CERN, the quality standards and infrastructure introduced together with the Agile process as well as the challenges encountered to adapt it to the CERN environment.

A Software Reuse Approach and Its Effect On Software Quality, An Empirical Study for The Software Industry

OpenAIRE

Mateen, Ahmed; Kausar, Samina; Sattar, Ahsan Raza

2017-01-01

Software reusability has become much interesting because of increased quality and reduce cost. A good process of software reuse leads to enhance the reliability, productivity, quality and the reduction of time and cost. Current reuse techniques focuses on the reuse of software artifact which grounded on anticipated functionality whereas, the non-functional (quality) aspect are also important. So, Software reusability used here to expand quality and productivity of software. It improves overal...

Fault-tolerant embedded system design and optimization considering reliability estimation uncertainty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wattanapongskorn, Naruemon; Coit, David W.

2007-01-01

In this paper, we model embedded system design and optimization, considering component redundancy and uncertainty in the component reliability estimates. The systems being studied consist of software embedded in associated hardware components. Very often, component reliability values are not known exactly. Therefore, for reliability analysis studies and system optimization, it is meaningful to consider component reliability estimates as random variables with associated estimation uncertainty. In this new research, the system design process is formulated as a multiple-objective optimization problem to maximize an estimate of system reliability, and also, to minimize the variance of the reliability estimate. The two objectives are combined by penalizing the variance for prospective solutions. The two most common fault-tolerant embedded system architectures, N-Version Programming and Recovery Block, are considered as strategies to improve system reliability by providing system redundancy. Four distinct models are presented to demonstrate the proposed optimization techniques with or without redundancy. For many design problems, multiple functionally equivalent software versions have failure correlation even if they have been independently developed. The failure correlation may result from faults in the software specification, faults from a voting algorithm, and/or related faults from any two software versions. Our approach considers this correlation in formulating practical optimization models. Genetic algorithms with a dynamic penalty function are applied in solving this optimization problem, and reasonable and interesting results are obtained and discussed

An integrated approach to human reliability analysis -- decision analytic dynamic reliability model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmberg, J.; Hukki, K.; Norros, L.; Pulkkinen, U.; Pyy, P.

1999-01-01

The reliability of human operators in process control is sensitive to the context. In many contemporary human reliability analysis (HRA) methods, this is not sufficiently taken into account. The aim of this article is that integration between probabilistic and psychological approaches in human reliability should be attempted. This is achieved first, by adopting such methods that adequately reflect the essential features of the process control activity, and secondly, by carrying out an interactive HRA process. Description of the activity context, probabilistic modeling, and psychological analysis form an iterative interdisciplinary sequence of analysis in which the results of one sub-task maybe input to another. The analysis of the context is carried out first with the help of a common set of conceptual tools. The resulting descriptions of the context promote the probabilistic modeling, through which new results regarding the probabilistic dynamics can be achieved. These can be incorporated in the context descriptions used as reference in the psychological analysis of actual performance. The results also provide new knowledge of the constraints of activity, by providing information of the premises of the operator's actions. Finally, the stochastic marked point process model gives a tool, by which psychological methodology may be interpreted and utilized for reliability analysis

SAPHIRE6.64, System Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: SAPHIRE is a collection of programs developed for the purpose of performing those functions necessary to create and analyze a complete Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) primarily for nuclear power plants. The programs included in this suite are the Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS), the System Analysis and Risk Assessment (SARA) system, the Models And Results Database (MAR-D) system, and the Fault tree, Event tree and P and ID (FEP) editors. Previously these programs were released as separate packages. These programs include functions to allow the user to create event trees and fault trees, to define accident sequences and basic event failure data, to solve system and accident sequence fault trees, to quantify cut sets, and to perform uncertainty analysis on the results. Also included in this program are features to allow the analyst to generate reports and displays that can be used to document the results of an analysis. Since this software is a very detailed technical tool, the user of this program should be familiar with PRA concepts and the methods used to perform these analyses. 2 - Methods: SAPHIRE is written in MODULA-2 and uses an integrated commercial graphics package to interactively construct and edit fault trees. The fault tree solving methods used are industry recognized top down algorithms. For quantification, the program uses standard methods to propagate the failure information through the generated cut sets. SAPHIRE includes a separate module called the Graphical Evaluation Module (GEM). GEM provides a highly specialized user interface with SAPHIRE which automates the process for evaluating operational events at commercial nuclear power plants. Using GEM an analyst can estimate the risk associated with operational events (that is, perform a Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 analysis for operational events) in a very efficient and expeditious manner. This on-line reference guide will

A Report on Simulation-Driven Reliability and Failure Analysis of Large-Scale Storage Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wan, Lipeng [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Wang, Feiyi [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Oral, H. Sarp [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Vazhkudai, Sudharshan S. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Cao, Qing [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

2014-11-01

High-performance computing (HPC) storage systems provide data availability and reliability using various hardware and software fault tolerance techniques. Usually, reliability and availability are calculated at the subsystem or component level using limited metrics such as, mean time to failure (MTTF) or mean time to data loss (MTTDL). This often means settling on simple and disconnected failure models (such as exponential failure rate) to achieve tractable and close-formed solutions. However, such models have been shown to be insufficient in assessing end-to-end storage system reliability and availability. We propose a generic simulation framework aimed at analyzing the reliability and availability of storage systems at scale, and investigating what-if scenarios. The framework is designed for an end-to-end storage system, accommodating the various components and subsystems, their interconnections, failure patterns and propagation, and performs dependency analysis to capture a wide-range of failure cases. We evaluate the framework against a large-scale storage system that is in production and analyze its failure projections toward and beyond the end of lifecycle. We also examine the potential operational impact by studying how different types of components affect the overall system reliability and availability, and present the preliminary results

Time-dependent reliability sensitivity analysis of motion mechanisms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wei, Pengfei; Song, Jingwen; Lu, Zhenzhou; Yue, Zhufeng

2016-01-01

Reliability sensitivity analysis aims at identifying the source of structure/mechanism failure, and quantifying the effects of each random source or their distribution parameters on failure probability or reliability. In this paper, the time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity (PRS) analysis as well as the global reliability sensitivity (GRS) analysis is introduced for the motion mechanisms. The PRS indices are defined as the partial derivatives of the time-dependent reliability w.r.t. the distribution parameters of each random input variable, and they quantify the effect of the small change of each distribution parameter on the time-dependent reliability. The GRS indices are defined for quantifying the individual, interaction and total contributions of the uncertainty in each random input variable to the time-dependent reliability. The envelope function method combined with the first order approximation of the motion error function is introduced for efficiently estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices. Both the time-dependent PRS and GRS analysis techniques can be especially useful for reliability-based design. This significance of the proposed methods as well as the effectiveness of the envelope function method for estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices are demonstrated with a four-bar mechanism and a car rack-and-pinion steering linkage. - Highlights: • Time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity analysis is presented. • Time-dependent global reliability sensitivity analysis is presented for mechanisms. • The proposed method is especially useful for enhancing the kinematic reliability. • An envelope method is introduced for efficiently implementing the proposed methods. • The proposed method is demonstrated by two real planar mechanisms.

Reliability and validity of risk analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aven, Terje; Heide, Bjornar

2009-01-01

In this paper we investigate to what extent risk analysis meets the scientific quality requirements of reliability and validity. We distinguish between two types of approaches within risk analysis, relative frequency-based approaches and Bayesian approaches. The former category includes both traditional statistical inference methods and the so-called probability of frequency approach. Depending on the risk analysis approach, the aim of the analysis is different, the results are presented in different ways and consequently the meaning of the concepts reliability and validity are not the same.

Evaluation of the reliability concerning the identification of human factors as contributing factors by a computer supported event analysis (CEA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilpert, B.; Maimer, H.; Loroff, C.

2000-01-01

The project's objectives are the evaluation of the reliability concerning the identification of Human Factors as contributing factors by a computer supported event analysis (CEA). CEA is a computer version of SOL (Safety through Organizational Learning). Parts of the first step were interviews with experts from the nuclear power industry and the evaluation of existing computer supported event analysis methods. This information was combined to a requirement profile for the CEA software. The next step contained the implementation of the software in an iterative process of evaluation. The completion of this project was the testing of the CEA software. As a result the testing demonstrated that it is possible to identify contributing factors with CEA validly. In addition, CEA received a very positive feedback from the experts. (orig.) [de

Structural Reliability Analysis of Wind Turbines: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiyu Jiang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a detailed review of the state-of-the-art research activities on structural reliability analysis of wind turbines between the 1990s and 2017. We describe the reliability methods including the first- and second-order reliability methods and the simulation reliability methods and show the procedure for and application areas of structural reliability analysis of wind turbines. Further, we critically review the various structural reliability studies on rotor blades, bottom-fixed support structures, floating systems and mechanical and electrical components. Finally, future applications of structural reliability methods to wind turbine designs are discussed.

Mapping Green Spaces in Bishkek—How Reliable can Spatial Analysis Be?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Hofmann

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Within urban areas, green spaces play a critically important role in the quality of life. They have remarkable impact on the local microclimate and the regional climate of the city. Quantifying the ‘greenness’ of urban areas allows comparing urban areas at several levels, as well as monitoring the evolution of green spaces in urban areas, thus serving as a tool for urban and developmental planning. Different categories of vegetation have different impacts on recreation potential and microclimate, as well as on the individual perception of green spaces. However, when quantifying the ‘greenness’ of urban areas the reliability of the underlying information is important in order to qualify analysis results. The reliability of geo-information derived from remote sensing data is usually assessed by ground truth validation or by comparison with other reference data. When applying methods of object based image analysis (OBIA and fuzzy classification, the degrees of fuzzy membership per object in general describe to what degree an object fits (prototypical class descriptions. Thus, analyzing the fuzzy membership degrees can contribute to the estimation of reliability and stability of classification results, even when no reference data are available. This paper presents an object based method using fuzzy class assignments to outline and classify three different classes of vegetation from GeoEye imagery. The classification result, its reliability and stability are evaluated using the reference-free parameters Best Classification Result and Classification Stability as introduced by Benz et al. in 2004 and implemented in the software package eCognition (www.ecognition.com. To demonstrate the application potentials of results a scenario for quantifying urban ‘greenness’ is presented.

Reliability analysis of reactor pressure vessel intensity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Liangang; Lu Yongbo

2012-01-01

This paper performs the reliability analysis of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) with ANSYS. The analysis method include direct Monte Carlo Simulation method, Latin Hypercube Sampling, central composite design and Box-Behnken Matrix design. The RPV integrity reliability under given input condition is proposed. The result shows that the effects on the RPV base material reliability are internal press, allowable basic stress and elasticity modulus of base material in descending order, and the effects on the bolt reliability are allowable basic stress of bolt material, preload of bolt and internal press in descending order. (authors)

A Research Roadmap for Computation-Based Human Reliability Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boring, Ronald [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Mandelli, Diego [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Joe, Jeffrey [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Smith, Curtis [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Groth, Katrina [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-08-01

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) is sponsoring research through the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program to extend the life of the currently operating fleet of commercial nuclear power plants. The Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) research pathway within LWRS looks at ways to maintain and improve the safety margins of these plants. The RISMC pathway includes significant developments in the area of thermalhydraulics code modeling and the development of tools to facilitate dynamic probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). PRA is primarily concerned with the risk of hardware systems at the plant; yet, hardware reliability is often secondary in overall risk significance to human errors that can trigger or compound undesirable events at the plant. This report highlights ongoing efforts to develop a computation-based approach to human reliability analysis (HRA). This computation-based approach differs from existing static and dynamic HRA approaches in that it: (i) interfaces with a dynamic computation engine that includes a full scope plant model, and (ii) interfaces with a PRA software toolset. The computation-based HRA approach presented in this report is called the Human Unimodels for Nuclear Technology to Enhance Reliability (HUNTER) and incorporates in a hybrid fashion elements of existing HRA methods to interface with new computational tools developed under the RISMC pathway. The goal of this research effort is to model human performance more accurately than existing approaches, thereby minimizing modeling uncertainty found in current plant risk models.

A Research Roadmap for Computation-Based Human Reliability Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boring, Ronald; Mandelli, Diego; Joe, Jeffrey; Smith, Curtis; Groth, Katrina

2015-01-01

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) is sponsoring research through the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program to extend the life of the currently operating fleet of commercial nuclear power plants. The Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) research pathway within LWRS looks at ways to maintain and improve the safety margins of these plants. The RISMC pathway includes significant developments in the area of thermalhydraulics code modeling and the development of tools to facilitate dynamic probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). PRA is primarily concerned with the risk of hardware systems at the plant; yet, hardware reliability is often secondary in overall risk significance to human errors that can trigger or compound undesirable events at the plant. This report highlights ongoing efforts to develop a computation-based approach to human reliability analysis (HRA). This computation-based approach differs from existing static and dynamic HRA approaches in that it: (i) interfaces with a dynamic computation engine that includes a full scope plant model, and (ii) interfaces with a PRA software toolset. The computation-based HRA approach presented in this report is called the Human Unimodels for Nuclear Technology to Enhance Reliability (HUNTER) and incorporates in a hybrid fashion elements of existing HRA methods to interface with new computational tools developed under the RISMC pathway. The goal of this research effort is to model human performance more accurately than existing approaches, thereby minimizing modeling uncertainty found in current plant risk models.

System reliability analysis with natural language and expert's subjectivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onisawa, T.

1996-01-01

This paper introduces natural language expressions and expert's subjectivity to system reliability analysis. To this end, this paper defines a subjective measure of reliability and presents the method of the system reliability analysis using the measure. The subjective measure of reliability corresponds to natural language expressions of reliability estimation, which is represented by a fuzzy set defined on [0,1]. The presented method deals with the dependence among subsystems and employs parametrized operations of subjective measures of reliability which can reflect expert 's subjectivity towards the analyzed system. The analysis results are also expressed by linguistic terms. Finally this paper gives an example of the system reliability analysis by the presented method

Long-term preservation of analysis software environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toppe Larsen, Dag; Blomer, Jakob; Buncic, Predrag; Charalampidis, Ioannis; Haratyunyan, Artem

2012-01-01

Long-term preservation of scientific data represents a challenge to experiments, especially regarding the analysis software. Preserving data is not enough; the full software and hardware environment is needed. Virtual machines (VMs) make it possible to preserve hardware “in software”. A complete infrastructure package has been developed for easy deployment and management of VMs, based on CERN virtual machine (CernVM). Further, a HTTP-based file system, CernVM file system (CVMFS), is used for the distribution of the software. It is possible to process data with any given software version, and a matching, regenerated VM version. A point-and-click web user interface is being developed for setting up the complete processing chain, including VM and software versions, number and type of processing nodes, and the particular type of analysis and data. This paradigm also allows for distributed cloud-computing on private and public clouds, for both legacy and contemporary experiments.

Living PRAs [probabilistic risk analysis] made easier with IRRAS [Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, K.D.; Sattison, M.B.; Rasmuson, D.M.

1989-01-01

The Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS) is an integrated PRA software tool that gives the user the ability to create and analyze fault trees and accident sequences using an IBM-compatible microcomputer. This program provides functions that range from graphical fault tree and event tree construction to cut set generation and quantification. IRRAS contains all the capabilities and functions required to create, modify, reduce, and analyze event tree and fault tree models used in the analysis of complex systems and processes. IRRAS uses advanced graphic and analytical techniques to achieve the greatest possible realization of the potential of the microcomputer. When the needs of the user exceed this potential, IRRAS can call upon the power of the mainframe computer. The role of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory if the IRRAS program is that of software developer and interface to the user community. Version 1.0 of the IRRAS program was released in February 1987 to prove the concept of performing this kind of analysis on microcomputers. This version contained many of the basic features needed for fault tree analysis and was received very well by the PRA community. Since the release of Version 1.0, many user comments and enhancements have been incorporated into the program providing a much more powerful and user-friendly system. This version is designated ''IRRAS 2.0''. Version 3.0 will contain all of the features required for efficient event tree and fault tree construction and analysis. 5 refs., 26 figs

PIV/HPIV Film Analysis Software Package

Science.gov (United States)

Blackshire, James L.

1997-01-01

A PIV/HPIV film analysis software system was developed that calculates the 2-dimensional spatial autocorrelations of subregions of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) or Holographic Particle Image Velocimetry (HPIV) film recordings. The software controls three hardware subsystems including (1) a Kodak Megaplus 1.4 camera and EPIX 4MEG framegrabber subsystem, (2) an IEEE/Unidex 11 precision motion control subsystem, and (3) an Alacron I860 array processor subsystem. The software runs on an IBM PC/AT host computer running either the Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 operating system. It is capable of processing five PIV or HPIV displacement vectors per second, and is completely automated with the exception of user input to a configuration file prior to analysis execution for update of various system parameters.

Software Users Manual (SUM): Extended Testability Analysis (ETA) Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Maul, William A.; Fulton, Christopher E.

2011-01-01

This software user manual describes the implementation and use the Extended Testability Analysis (ETA) Tool. The ETA Tool is a software program that augments the analysis and reporting capabilities of a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) testability analysis software package called the Testability Engineering And Maintenance System (TEAMS) Designer. An initial diagnostic assessment is performed by the TEAMS Designer software using a qualitative, directed-graph model of the system being analyzed. The ETA Tool utilizes system design information captured within the diagnostic model and testability analysis output from the TEAMS Designer software to create a series of six reports for various system engineering needs. The ETA Tool allows the user to perform additional studies on the testability analysis results by determining the detection sensitivity to the loss of certain sensors or tests. The ETA Tool was developed to support design and development of the NASA Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle. The diagnostic analysis provided by the ETA Tool was proven to be valuable system engineering output that provided consistency in the verification of system engineering requirements. This software user manual provides a description of each output report generated by the ETA Tool. The manual also describes the example diagnostic model and supporting documentation - also provided with the ETA Tool software release package - that were used to generate the reports presented in the manual

Reliability analysis in intelligent machines

Science.gov (United States)

Mcinroy, John E.; Saridis, George N.

1990-01-01

Given an explicit task to be executed, an intelligent machine must be able to find the probability of success, or reliability, of alternative control and sensing strategies. By using concepts for information theory and reliability theory, new techniques for finding the reliability corresponding to alternative subsets of control and sensing strategies are proposed such that a desired set of specifications can be satisfied. The analysis is straightforward, provided that a set of Gaussian random state variables is available. An example problem illustrates the technique, and general reliability results are presented for visual servoing with a computed torque-control algorithm. Moreover, the example illustrates the principle of increasing precision with decreasing intelligence at the execution level of an intelligent machine.

Reliability analysis based on the losses from failures.

Science.gov (United States)

Todinov, M T

2006-04-01

The conventional reliability analysis is based on the premise that increasing the reliability of a system will decrease the losses from failures. On the basis of counterexamples, it is demonstrated that this is valid only if all failures are associated with the same losses. In case of failures associated with different losses, a system with larger reliability is not necessarily characterized by smaller losses from failures. Consequently, a theoretical framework and models are proposed for a reliability analysis, linking reliability and the losses from failures. Equations related to the distributions of the potential losses from failure have been derived. It is argued that the classical risk equation only estimates the average value of the potential losses from failure and does not provide insight into the variability associated with the potential losses. Equations have also been derived for determining the potential and the expected losses from failures for nonrepairable and repairable systems with components arranged in series, with arbitrary life distributions. The equations are also valid for systems/components with multiple mutually exclusive failure modes. The expected losses given failure is a linear combination of the expected losses from failure associated with the separate failure modes scaled by the conditional probabilities with which the failure modes initiate failure. On this basis, an efficient method for simplifying complex reliability block diagrams has been developed. Branches of components arranged in series whose failures are mutually exclusive can be reduced to single components with equivalent hazard rate, downtime, and expected costs associated with intervention and repair. A model for estimating the expected losses from early-life failures has also been developed. For a specified time interval, the expected losses from early-life failures are a sum of the products of the expected number of failures in the specified time intervals covering the

Reliability Estimation for Digital Instrument/Control System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Yaguang; Sydnor, Russell [U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. (United States)

2011-08-15

Digital instrumentation and controls (DI and C) systems are widely adopted in various industries because of their flexibility and ability to implement various functions that can be used to automatically monitor, analyze, and control complicated systems. It is anticipated that the DI and C will replace the traditional analog instrumentation and controls (AI and C) systems in all future nuclear reactor designs. There is an increasing interest for reliability and risk analyses for safety critical DI and C systems in regulatory organizations, such as The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Developing reliability models and reliability estimation methods for digital reactor control and protection systems will involve every part of the DI and C system, such as sensors, signal conditioning and processing components, transmission lines and digital communication systems, D/A and A/D converters, computer system, signal processing software, control and protection software, power supply system, and actuators. Some of these components are hardware, such as sensors and actuators, their failure mechanisms are well understood, and the traditional reliability model and estimation methods can be directly applied. But many of these components are firmware which has software embedded in the hardware, and software needs special consideration because its failure mechanism is unique, and the reliability estimation method for a software system will be different from the ones used for hardware systems. In this paper, we will propose a reliability estimation method for the entire DI and C system reliability using a recently developed software reliability estimation method and a traditional hardware reliability estimation method.

Reliability Estimation for Digital Instrument/Control System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Yaguang; Sydnor, Russell

2011-01-01

Digital instrumentation and controls (DI and C) systems are widely adopted in various industries because of their flexibility and ability to implement various functions that can be used to automatically monitor, analyze, and control complicated systems. It is anticipated that the DI and C will replace the traditional analog instrumentation and controls (AI and C) systems in all future nuclear reactor designs. There is an increasing interest for reliability and risk analyses for safety critical DI and C systems in regulatory organizations, such as The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Developing reliability models and reliability estimation methods for digital reactor control and protection systems will involve every part of the DI and C system, such as sensors, signal conditioning and processing components, transmission lines and digital communication systems, D/A and A/D converters, computer system, signal processing software, control and protection software, power supply system, and actuators. Some of these components are hardware, such as sensors and actuators, their failure mechanisms are well understood, and the traditional reliability model and estimation methods can be directly applied. But many of these components are firmware which has software embedded in the hardware, and software needs special consideration because its failure mechanism is unique, and the reliability estimation method for a software system will be different from the ones used for hardware systems. In this paper, we will propose a reliability estimation method for the entire DI and C system reliability using a recently developed software reliability estimation method and a traditional hardware reliability estimation method

Usage of Modified Heuristic Model for Determination of Software Stability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey Konstantinovich Marfenko

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The subject of this paper is analysis method for determining the stability of software against the attacks on its integrity. It is suggested to use the modified heuristic model of software reliability as mathematic basis of this method. This model is based on classic approach, but it takes into account impact levels of different software errors on system integrity. It allows to define critical characteristics of software: percentage of time in stable working, the possibility of failure.

A Study on the Quantitative Assessment Method of Software Requirement Documents Using Software Engineering Measures and Bayesian Belief Networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, Heung Seop; Kang, Hyun Gook; Park, Ki Hong; Kwon, Kee Choon; Chang, Seung Cheol

2005-01-01

One of the major challenges in using the digital systems in a NPP is the reliability estimation of safety critical software embedded in the digital safety systems. Precise quantitative assessment of the reliability of safety critical software is nearly impossible, since many of the aspects to be considered are of qualitative nature and not directly measurable, but they have to be estimated for a practical use. Therefore an expert's judgment plays an important role in estimating the reliability of the software embedded in safety-critical systems in practice, because they can deal with all the diverse evidence relevant to the reliability and can perform an inference based on the evidence. But, in general, the experts' way of combining the diverse evidence and performing an inference is usually informal and qualitative, which is hard to discuss and will eventually lead to a debate about the conclusion. We have been carrying out research on a quantitative assessment of the reliability of safety critical software using Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). BBN has been proven to be a useful modeling formalism because a user can represent a complex set of events and relationships in a fashion that can easily be interpreted by others. In the previous works we have assessed a software requirement specification of a reactor protection system by using our BBN-based assessment model. The BBN model mainly employed an expert's subjective probabilities as inputs. In the process of assessing the software requirement documents we found out that the BBN model was excessively dependent on experts' subjective judgments in a large part. Therefore, to overcome the weakness of our methodology we employed conventional software engineering measures into the BBN model as shown in this paper. The quantitative relationship between the conventional software measures and the reliability of software were not identified well in the past. Then recently there appeared a few researches on a ranking of

Safeprops: A Software for Fast and Reliable Estimation of Safety and Environmental Properties for Organic Compounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jones, Mark Nicholas; Frutiger, Jerome; Abildskov, Jens

We present a new software tool called SAFEPROPS which is able to estimate major safety-related and environmental properties for organic compounds. SAFEPROPS provides accurate, reliable and fast predictions using the Marrero-Gani group contribution (MG-GC) method. It is implemented using Python...... as the main programming language, while the necessary parameters together with their correlation matrix are obtained from a SQLite database which has been populated using off-line parameter and error estimation routines (Eq. 3-8)....

Bayesian methods in reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Sander, P.; Badoux, R.

1991-11-01

The present proceedings from a course on Bayesian methods in reliability encompasses Bayesian statistical methods and their computational implementation, models for analyzing censored data from nonrepairable systems, the traits of repairable systems and growth models, the use of expert judgment, and a review of the problem of forecasting software reliability. Specific issues addressed include the use of Bayesian methods to estimate the leak rate of a gas pipeline, approximate analyses under great prior uncertainty, reliability estimation techniques, and a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Also addressed are the calibration sets and seed variables of expert judgment systems for risk assessment, experimental illustrations of the use of expert judgment for reliability testing, and analyses of the predictive quality of software-reliability growth models such as the Weibull order statistics.

RADYBAN: A tool for reliability analysis of dynamic fault trees through conversion into dynamic Bayesian networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montani, S.; Portinale, L.; Bobbio, A.; Codetta-Raiteri, D.

2008-01-01

In this paper, we present RADYBAN (Reliability Analysis with DYnamic BAyesian Networks), a software tool which allows to analyze a dynamic fault tree relying on its conversion into a dynamic Bayesian network. The tool implements a modular algorithm for automatically translating a dynamic fault tree into the corresponding dynamic Bayesian network and exploits classical algorithms for the inference on dynamic Bayesian networks, in order to compute reliability measures. After having described the basic features of the tool, we show how it operates on a real world example and we compare the unreliability results it generates with those returned by other methodologies, in order to verify the correctness and the consistency of the results obtained

BBN based Quantitative Assessment of Software Design Specification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, Heung-Seop; Park, Gee-Yong; Kang, Hyun-Gook; Kwon, Kee-Choon; Chang, Seung-Cheol

2007-01-01

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA), which is one of the important methods in assessing the overall safety of a nuclear power plant (NPP), requires quantitative reliability information of safety-critical software, but the conventional reliability assessment methods can not provide enough information for PSA of a NPP. Therefore current PSA which includes safety-critical software does not usually consider the reliability of the software or uses arbitrary values for it. In order to solve this situation this paper proposes a method that can produce quantitative reliability information of safety-critical software for PSA by making use of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). BBN has generally been used to model an uncertain system in many research fields including the safety assessment of software. The proposed method was constructed by utilizing BBN which can combine the qualitative and the quantitative evidence relevant to the reliability of safety critical software. The constructed BBN model can infer a conclusion in a formal and a quantitative way. A case study was carried out with the proposed method to assess the quality of software design specification (SDS) of safety-critical software that will be embedded in a reactor protection system. The intermediate V and V results of the software design specification were used as inputs to the BBN model

Reliability data collection and use in risk and availability assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colombari, V.

1989-01-01

For EuReDatA it is a prevailing objective to initiate and support contact between experts, companies and institutions active in reliability engineering and research. Main topics of this 6th EuReDatA Conference are: Reliability data banks; incidents data banks; common cause data; source and propagation of uncertainties; computer aided risk analysis; reliability and incidents data acquisition and processing; human reliability; probabilistic safety and availability assessment; feedback of reliability into system design; data fusion; reliability modeling and techniques; structural and mechanical reliability; consequence modeling; software and electronic reliability; reliability tests. Some conference papers are separately indexed in the database. (HP)

Software Framework for Development of Web-GIS Systems for Analysis of Georeferenced Geophysical Data

Science.gov (United States)

Okladnikov, I.; Gordov, E. P.; Titov, A. G.

2011-12-01

, meteorological observational data for the territory of the former USSR for the 20th century, and others. Current version of the system is already involved into a scientific research process. Particularly, recently the system was successfully used for analysis of Siberia climate changes and its impact in the region. The software framework presented allows rapid development of Web-GIS systems for geophysical data analysis thus providing specialists involved into multidisciplinary research projects with reliable and practical instruments for complex analysis of climate and ecosystems changes on global and regional scales. This work is partially supported by RFBR grants #10-07-00547, #11-05-01190, and SB RAS projects 4.31.1.5, 4.31.2.7, 4, 8, 9, 50 and 66.

An open source cryostage and software analysis method for detection of antifreeze activity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lørup Buch, Johannes; Ramløv, H

2016-01-01

AFP could reliably be told apart from controls after only two minutes of recrystallisation. The goal of providing a fast, cheap and easy method for detecting antifreeze proteins in solution was met, and further development of the system can be followed at https://github.com/pechano/cryostage.......The aim of this study is to provide the reader with a simple setup that can detect antifreeze proteins (AFP) by inhibition of ice recrystallisation in very small sample sizes. This includes an open source cryostage, a method for preparing and loading samples as well as a software analysis method...

Software diversity: way to enhance safety?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahll, G.; Bishop, P.

1990-01-01

The topic of the paper is the use of diversely produced programs to enhance the safety of computer-based systems applied in safety-critical areas. The paper starts with a survey of scientific investigations on the impact of software redundancy made at various institutions around the world. Main emphasis will, however, be put on the PODS/STEM projects, which have been performed at the OECD Halden Project in cooperation with the Technical Research Center of Finland, the Safety and Reliability Directorate, AEA Technology, UK, and Central Electricity Research Laboratory (now National Power Technology and Environment Centre), UK. In these projects, three program versions were made independently by three different teams, all based on the same specification. The three programs were tested back-to-back with a large amount of test data. The experience and results from this process were carefully logged and used for further analysis. Various strategies for test data selection were compared, with respect to fault finding strategies, as well as to branch and statement coverages of the tested programs. The assumption of independence of failures in diversely produced programs was investigated. A particularly interesting effect, namely failure masking due to program structure, was revealed. Static analysis techniques, software measures, and software reliability estimates were also studied. (author)

Verification and validation process for the safety software in KNICS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Kee-Choon; Lee, Jang-Soo; Kim, Jang-Yeol

2004-01-01

This paper describes the Verification and Validation (V and V ) process for safety software of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Digital Reactor Protection System (DRPS), and Engineered Safety Feature-Component Control System (ESF-CCS) that are being developed in Korea Nuclear Instrumentation and Control System (KNICS) projects. Specifically, it presents DRPS V and V experience according to the software development life cycle. The main activities of DRPS V and V process are preparation of software planning documentation, verification of Software Requirement Specification (SRS), Software Design Specification (SDS) and codes, and testing of the integrated software and the integrated system. In addition, they include software safety analysis and software configuration management. SRS V and V of DRPS are technical evaluation, licensing suitability evaluation, inspection and traceability analysis, formal verification, preparing integrated system test plan, software safety analysis, and software configuration management. Also, SDS V and V of RPS are technical evaluation, licensing suitability evaluation, inspection and traceability analysis, formal verification, preparing integrated software test plan, software safety analysis, and software configuration management. The code V and V of DRPS are traceability analysis, source code inspection, test case and test procedure generation, software safety analysis, and software configuration management. Testing is the major V and V activity of software integration and system integration phase. Software safety analysis at SRS phase uses Hazard Operability (HAZOP) method, at SDS phase it uses HAZOP and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and at implementation phase it uses FTA. Finally, software configuration management is performed using Nu-SCM (Nuclear Software Configuration Management) tool developed by KNICS project. Through these activities, we believe we can achieve the functionality, performance, reliability and safety that are V

Development of output user interface software to support analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wahanani, Nursinta Adi, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id; Natsir, Khairina, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id; Hartini, Entin, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id [Center for Development of Nuclear Informatics - National Nuclear Energy Agency, PUSPIPTEK, Serpong, Tangerang, Banten (Indonesia)

2014-09-30

Data processing software packages such as VSOP and MCNPX are softwares that has been scientifically proven and complete. The result of VSOP and MCNPX are huge and complex text files. In the analyze process, user need additional processing like Microsoft Excel to show informative result. This research develop an user interface software for output of VSOP and MCNPX. VSOP program output is used to support neutronic analysis and MCNPX program output is used to support burn-up analysis. Software development using iterative development methods which allow for revision and addition of features according to user needs. Processing time with this software 500 times faster than with conventional methods using Microsoft Excel. PYTHON is used as a programming language, because Python is available for all major operating systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, among others. Values that support neutronic analysis are k-eff, burn-up and mass Pu{sup 239} and Pu{sup 241}. Burn-up analysis used the mass inventory values of actinide (Thorium, Plutonium, Neptunium and Uranium). Values are visualized in graphical shape to support analysis.

Development of output user interface software to support analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wahanani, Nursinta Adi; Natsir, Khairina; Hartini, Entin

2014-01-01

Data processing software packages such as VSOP and MCNPX are softwares that has been scientifically proven and complete. The result of VSOP and MCNPX are huge and complex text files. In the analyze process, user need additional processing like Microsoft Excel to show informative result. This research develop an user interface software for output of VSOP and MCNPX. VSOP program output is used to support neutronic analysis and MCNPX program output is used to support burn-up analysis. Software development using iterative development methods which allow for revision and addition of features according to user needs. Processing time with this software 500 times faster than with conventional methods using Microsoft Excel. PYTHON is used as a programming language, because Python is available for all major operating systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, among others. Values that support neutronic analysis are k-eff, burn-up and mass Pu 239 and Pu 241 . Burn-up analysis used the mass inventory values of actinide (Thorium, Plutonium, Neptunium and Uranium). Values are visualized in graphical shape to support analysis

Reliability analysis techniques for the design engineer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Corran, E.R.; Witt, H.H.

1980-01-01

A fault tree analysis package is described that eliminates most of the housekeeping tasks involved in proceeding from the initial construction of a fault tree to the final stage of presenting a reliability analysis in a safety report. It is suitable for designers with relatively little training in reliability analysis and computer operation. Users can rapidly investigate the reliability implications of various options at the design stage, and evolve a system which meets specified reliability objectives. Later independent review is thus unlikely to reveal major shortcomings necessitating modification and projects delays. The package operates interactively allowing the user to concentrate on the creative task of developing the system fault tree, which may be modified and displayed graphically. For preliminary analysis system data can be derived automatically from a generic data bank. As the analysis procedes improved estimates of critical failure rates and test and maintenance schedules can be inserted. The computations are standard, - identification of minimal cut-sets, estimation of reliability parameters, and ranking of the effect of the individual component failure modes and system failure modes on these parameters. The user can vary the fault trees and data on-line, and print selected data for preferred systems in a form suitable for inclusion in safety reports. A case history is given - that of HIFAR containment isolation system. (author)

Statistical approach to software reliability certification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Corro Ramos, I.; Di Bucchianico, A.; Hee, van K.M.

2009-01-01

We present a sequential software release procedure that certifies with some confidence level that the next error is not occurring within a certain time interval. Our procedure is defined in such a way that the release time is optimal for single stages and the global risk can be controlled. We assume

Improving Software Systems By Flow Control Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piotr Poznanski

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Using agile methods during the implementation of the system that meets mission critical requirements can be a real challenge. The change in the system built of dozens or even hundreds of specialized devices with embedded software requires the cooperation of a large group of engineers. This article presents a solution that supports parallel work of groups of system analysts and software developers. Deployment of formal rules to the requirements written in natural language enables using formal analysis of artifacts being a bridge between software and system requirements. Formalism and textual form of requirements allowed the automatic generation of message flow graph for the (sub system, called the “big-picture-model”. Flow diagram analysis helped to avoid a large number of defects whose repair cost in extreme cases could undermine the legitimacy of agile methods in projects of this scale. Retrospectively, a reduction of technical debt was observed. Continuous analysis of the “big picture model” improves the control of the quality parameters of the software architecture. The article also tries to explain why the commercial platform based on UML modeling language may not be sufficient in projects of this complexity.

Human Reliability Analysis for Design: Using Reliability Methods for Human Factors Issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ronald Laurids Boring

2010-11-01

This paper reviews the application of human reliability analysis methods to human factors design issues. An application framework is sketched in which aspects of modeling typically found in human reliability analysis are used in a complementary fashion to the existing human factors phases of design and testing. The paper provides best achievable practices for design, testing, and modeling. Such best achievable practices may be used to evaluate and human system interface in the context of design safety certifications.

Human Reliability Analysis for Design: Using Reliability Methods for Human Factors Issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boring, Ronald Laurids

2010-01-01

This paper reviews the application of human reliability analysis methods to human factors design issues. An application framework is sketched in which aspects of modeling typically found in human reliability analysis are used in a complementary fashion to the existing human factors phases of design and testing. The paper provides best achievable practices for design, testing, and modeling. Such best achievable practices may be used to evaluate and human system interface in the context of design safety certifications.

Module Testing Techniques for Nuclear Safety Critical Software Using LDRA Testing Tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, Kwon-Ki; Kim, Do-Yeon; Chang, Hoon-Seon; Chang, Young-Woo; Yun, Jae-Hee; Park, Jee-Duck; Kim, Jae-Hack

2006-01-01

The safety critical software in the I and C systems of nuclear power plants requires high functional integrity and reliability. To achieve those requirement goals, the safety critical software should be verified and tested according to related codes and standards through verification and validation (V and V) activities. The safety critical software testing is performed at various stages during the development of the software, and is generally classified as three major activities: module testing, system integration testing, and system validation testing. Module testing involves the evaluation of module level functions of hardware and software. System integration testing investigates the characteristics of a collection of modules and aims at establishing their correct interactions. System validation testing demonstrates that the complete system satisfies its functional requirements. In order to generate reliable software and reduce high maintenance cost, it is important that software testing is carried out at module level. Module testing for the nuclear safety critical software has rarely been performed by formal and proven testing tools because of its various constraints. LDRA testing tool is a widely used and proven tool set that provides powerful source code testing and analysis facilities for the V and V of general purpose software and safety critical software. Use of the tool set is indispensable where software is required to be reliable and as error-free as possible, and its use brings in substantial time and cost savings, and efficiency

International Atomic Energy Agency intercomparison of ion beam analysis software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barradas, N.P. [Instituto Tecnologico e Nuclear, Estrada Nacional No. 10, Apartado 21, 2686-953 Sacavem (Portugal); Centro de Fisica Nuclear da Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida do Professor Gama Pinto 2, 1649-003 Lisboa (Portugal)], E-mail: nunoni@itn.pt; Arstila, K. [K.U. Leuven, Instituut voor Kern-en Stralingsfysica, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Battistig, G. [MFA Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest (Hungary); Bianconi, M. [CNR-IMM-Sezione di Bologna, Via P. Gobetti, 101, I-40129 Bologna (Italy); Dytlewski, N. [International Atomic Energy Agency, Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna (Austria); Jeynes, C. [Surrey Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH (United Kingdom); Kotai, E. [KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest (Hungary); Lulli, G. [CNR-IMM-Sezione di Bologna, Via P. Gobetti, 101, I-40129 Bologna (Italy); Mayer, M. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, Boltzmannstrasse 2, D-85748 Garching (Germany); Rauhala, E. [Accelerator Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 43, FIN-00014 Helsinki (Finland); Szilagyi, E. [KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest (Hungary); Thompson, M. [Department of MS and E/Bard Hall 328, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)

2007-09-15

parameters, but also extends to extracting information from real data. In particular, we have shown data from an Sb implanted sample where the Sb fluence was certified with an uncertainty of 0.6%. For this sample, and using SRIM03 stopping powers for 1.5 MeV {sup 4}He in Si, the codes were able to extract the Sb fluence with an average 0.18% deviation from the certified value and a 0.11% agreement between the codes. Thus IBA is a suitable technique for accurate analysis where traceability is critical. These results confirm that available IBA software packages are, within their design limitations, consistent and reliable. The protocol established may be readily applied to validate future IBA software as well.

The capabilities and applications of the saphire 5.0 safety assessment software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, K.D.; Wood, S.T.; Kvarfordt, K.J.

1994-01-01

The System Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) refers to a suite of computer programs that were developed to create and analyze a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of a nuclear power plant. The programs in this suite include: Models and Results Data Base (MAR-D) software, Integrated Reliability and Risk Analysis System (IRRAS) software, System Analysis and Risk Assessment (SARA) software, and Fault tree, Event tree, and Piping and instrumentation diagram (FEP) graphical editor. Each of these programs performs a specific function in taking a PRA from the conceptual state all the way to publication. This paper provides an overview of the features and capabilities provided in version 5.0 of this software system. Some major new features include the ability to store unlimited cut sets, the ability to perform location transformations, the ability to perform seismic analysis, the ability to perform automated rule based recovery analysis and end state cut set partitioning, the ability to perform end state analysis, a new alphanumeric fault tree editor, and a new alphanumeric event tree editor. Many enhancements and improvements to the user interface as well as a significant reduction in the time required to perform an analysis are included in version 5.0. These new features and capabilities provide a powerful set of PC based PRA analysis tools

OpenFLUX: efficient modelling software for 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nielsen Lars K

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The quantitative analysis of metabolic fluxes, i.e., in vivo activities of intracellular enzymes and pathways, provides key information on biological systems in systems biology and metabolic engineering. It is based on a comprehensive approach combining (i tracer cultivation on 13C substrates, (ii 13C labelling analysis by mass spectrometry and (iii mathematical modelling for experimental design, data processing, flux calculation and statistics. Whereas the cultivation and the analytical part is fairly advanced, a lack of appropriate modelling software solutions for all modelling aspects in flux studies is limiting the application of metabolic flux analysis. Results We have developed OpenFLUX as a user friendly, yet flexible software application for small and large scale 13C metabolic flux analysis. The application is based on the new Elementary Metabolite Unit (EMU framework, significantly enhancing computation speed for flux calculation. From simple notation of metabolic reaction networks defined in a spreadsheet, the OpenFLUX parser automatically generates MATLAB-readable metabolite and isotopomer balances, thus strongly facilitating model creation. The model can be used to perform experimental design, parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis either using the built-in gradient-based search or Monte Carlo algorithms or in user-defined algorithms. Exemplified for a microbial flux study with 71 reactions, 8 free flux parameters and mass isotopomer distribution of 10 metabolites, OpenFLUX allowed to automatically compile the EMU-based model from an Excel file containing metabolic reactions and carbon transfer mechanisms, showing it's user-friendliness. It reliably reproduced the published data and optimum flux distributions for the network under study were found quickly ( Conclusion We have developed a fast, accurate application to perform steady-state 13C metabolic flux analysis. OpenFLUX will strongly facilitate and

Reliability analysis of different structure parameters of PCBA under drop impact

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, P. S.; Fan, G. M.; Liu, Y. H.

2018-03-01

The establishing process of PCBA is modelled by finite element analysis software ABAQUS. Firstly, introduce the Input-G method and the fatigue life under drop impact are introduced and the mechanism of the solder joint failure in the process of drop is analysed. The main reason of solder joint failure is that the PCB component is suffering repeated tension and compression stress during the drop impact. Finally, the equivalent stress and peel stress of different solder joint and plate-level components under different impact acceleration are also analysed. The results show that the reliability of tin-silver copper joint is better than that of tin- lead solder joint, and the fatigue life of solder joint expectancy decrease as the impact pulse amplitude increases.

Reliability of adaptive multivariate software sensors for sewer water quality monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vezzaro, Luca; Mikkelsen, Peter Steen

2015-01-01

This study investigates the use of a multivariate approach, based on Principal Component Analysis PCA), as software sensor for fault detection and reconstruction of missing measurements in on-line monitoring of sewer water quality. The analysis was carried out on a 16-months dataset of five...... commonly available on-line measurements (flow, turbidity, ammonia, conductivity and temperature). The results confirmed the great performance of PCA (up to 10 weeks after parameter estimation) when estimating a measurement from the combination of the remaining four variables, a useful feature in data...

Software Process Improvement Using Force Field Analysis ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An improvement plan is then drawn and implemented. This paper studied the state of Nigerian software development organizations based on selected attributes. Force field analysis is used to partition the factors obtained into driving and restraining forces. An attempt was made to improve the software development process ...

Systems reliability analysis for the national ignition facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majumdar, K.C.; Annese, C.E.; MacIntyre, A.T.; Sicherman, A.

1996-01-01

A Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) analysis was initiated for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The NIF is an inertial confinement fusion research facility designed to achieve controlled thermonuclear reaction; the preferred site for the NIF is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The NIF RAM analysis has three purposes: (1) to allocate top level reliability and availability goals for the systems, (2) to develop an operability model for optimum maintainability, and (3) to determine the achievability of the allocated goals of the RAM parameters for the NIF systems and the facility operation as a whole. An allocation model assigns the reliability and availability goals for front line and support systems by a top-down approach; reliability analysis uses a bottom-up approach to determine the system reliability and availability from component level to system level

Mechanical reliability analysis of tubes intended for hydrocarbons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nahal, Mourad; Khelif, Rabia [Badji Mokhtar University, Annaba (Algeria)

2013-02-15

Reliability analysis constitutes an essential phase in any study concerning reliability. Many industrialists evaluate and improve the reliability of their products during the development cycle - from design to startup (design, manufacture, and exploitation) - to develop their knowledge on cost/reliability ratio and to control sources of failure. In this study, we obtain results for hardness, tensile, and hydrostatic tests carried out on steel tubes for transporting hydrocarbons followed by statistical analysis. Results obtained allow us to conduct a reliability study based on resistance request. Thus, index of reliability is calculated and the importance of the variables related to the tube is presented. Reliability-based assessment of residual stress effects is applied to underground pipelines under a roadway, with and without active corrosion. Residual stress has been found to greatly increase probability of failure, especially in the early stages of pipe lifetime.

Method for critical software event execution reliability in high integrity software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kidd, M.E. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1997-11-01

This report contains viewgraphs on a method called SEER, which provides a high level of confidence that critical software driven event execution sequences faithfully exceute in the face of transient computer architecture failures in both normal and abnormal operating environments.

Proceedings of the SRESA national conference on reliability and safety engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varde, P.V.; Vaishnavi, P.; Sujatha, S.; Valarmathi, A.

2014-01-01

The objective of this conference was to provide a forum for technical discussions on recent developments in the area of risk based approach and Prognostic Health Management of critical systems in decision making. The reliability and safety engineering methods are concerned with the way which the product fails, and the effects of failure is to understand how a product works and assures acceptable levels of safety. The reliability engineering addresses all the anticipated and possibly unanticipated causes of failure to ensure the occurrence of failure is prevented or minimized. The topics discussed in the conference were: Reliability in Engineering Design, Safety Assessment and Management, Reliability analysis and Assessment , Stochastic Petri nets for reliability Modeling, Dynamic Reliability, Reliability Prediction, Hardware Reliability, Software Reliability in Safety Critical Issues, Probabilistic Safety Assessment, Risk Informed Approach, Dynamic Models for Reliability Analysis, Reliability based Design and Analysis, Prognostics and Health Management, Remaining Useful Life (RUL), Human Reliability Modeling, Risk Based Applications, Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP), Reliability in Network Security and Quality Assurance and Management etc. The papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

Development of a fatigue analysis software system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, B. I.; Lee, H. J.; Han, S. W.; Kim, J. Y.; Hwang, K. H.; Kang, J. Y.

2001-01-01

A general purpose fatigue analysis software to predict fatigue lives of mechanical components and structures was developed. This software has some characteristic features including functions of searching weak regions on the free surface in order to reduce computing time significantly, a database of fatigue properties for various materials, and an expert system which can assist any users to get more proper results. This software can be used in the environment consists of commercial finite element packages. Using the software developed fatigue analyses for a SAE keyhole specimen and an automobile knuckle were carried out. It was observed that the results were agree well with those from commercial packages

Structural reliability methods: Code development status

Science.gov (United States)

Millwater, Harry R.; Thacker, Ben H.; Wu, Y.-T.; Cruse, T. A.

1991-05-01

The Probabilistic Structures Analysis Method (PSAM) program integrates state of the art probabilistic algorithms with structural analysis methods in order to quantify the behavior of Space Shuttle Main Engine structures subject to uncertain loadings, boundary conditions, material parameters, and geometric conditions. An advanced, efficient probabilistic structural analysis software program, NESSUS (Numerical Evaluation of Stochastic Structures Under Stress) was developed as a deliverable. NESSUS contains a number of integrated software components to perform probabilistic analysis of complex structures. A nonlinear finite element module NESSUS/FEM is used to model the structure and obtain structural sensitivities. Some of the capabilities of NESSUS/FEM are shown. A Fast Probability Integration module NESSUS/FPI estimates the probability given the structural sensitivities. A driver module, PFEM, couples the FEM and FPI. NESSUS, version 5.0, addresses component reliability, resistance, and risk.

Resilience Engineering in Critical Long Term Aerospace Software Systems: A New Approach to Spacecraft Software Safety

Science.gov (United States)

Dulo, D. A.

Safety critical software systems permeate spacecraft, and in a long term venture like a starship would be pervasive in every system of the spacecraft. Yet software failure today continues to plague both the systems and the organizations that develop them resulting in the loss of life, time, money, and valuable system platforms. A starship cannot afford this type of software failure in long journeys away from home. A single software failure could have catastrophic results for the spaceship and the crew onboard. This paper will offer a new approach to developing safe reliable software systems through focusing not on the traditional safety/reliability engineering paradigms but rather by focusing on a new paradigm: Resilience and Failure Obviation Engineering. The foremost objective of this approach is the obviation of failure, coupled with the ability of a software system to prevent or adapt to complex changing conditions in real time as a safety valve should failure occur to ensure safe system continuity. Through this approach, safety is ensured through foresight to anticipate failure and to adapt to risk in real time before failure occurs. In a starship, this type of software engineering is vital. Through software developed in a resilient manner, a starship would have reduced or eliminated software failure, and would have the ability to rapidly adapt should a software system become unstable or unsafe. As a result, long term software safety, reliability, and resilience would be present for a successful long term starship mission.

Elementary study on γ analysis software for low level measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruan Guanglin; Huang Xianguo; Xing Shixiong

2001-01-01

The difficulty in using fashion γ analysis software in low level measurement is discussed. The ROI report file of ORTEC operation system has been chosen as interface file to write γ analysis software for low-level measurement. The author gives software flowchart and applied example and discusses the existent problems

Reliability Analysis of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2008-01-01

In order to minimise the total expected life-cycle costs of a wind turbine it is important to estimate the reliability level for all components in the wind turbine. This paper deals with reliability analysis for the tower and blades of onshore wind turbines placed in a wind farm. The limit states...... consideres are in the ultimate limit state (ULS) extreme conditions in the standstill position and extreme conditions during operating. For wind turbines, where the magnitude of the loads is influenced by the control system, the ultimate limit state can occur in both cases. In the fatigue limit state (FLS......) the reliability level for a wind turbine placed in a wind farm is considered, and wake effects from neighbouring wind turbines is taken into account. An illustrative example with calculation of the reliability for mudline bending of the tower is considered. In the example the design is determined according...

Dependability modeling and assessment in UML-based software development.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardi, Simona; Merseguer, José; Petriu, Dorina C

2012-01-01

Assessment of software nonfunctional properties (NFP) is an important problem in software development. In the context of model-driven development, an emerging approach for the analysis of different NFPs consists of the following steps: (a) to extend the software models with annotations describing the NFP of interest; (b) to transform automatically the annotated software model to the formalism chosen for NFP analysis; (c) to analyze the formal model using existing solvers; (d) to assess the software based on the results and give feedback to designers. Such a modeling→analysis→assessment approach can be applied to any software modeling language, be it general purpose or domain specific. In this paper, we focus on UML-based development and on the dependability NFP, which encompasses reliability, availability, safety, integrity, and maintainability. The paper presents the profile used to extend UML with dependability information, the model transformation to generate a DSPN formal model, and the assessment of the system properties based on the DSPN results.

Continuous software quality analysis for the ATLAS experiment

CERN Document Server

Washbrook, Andrew; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

The software for the ATLAS experiment on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has evolved over many years to meet the demands of Monte Carlo simulation, particle detector reconstruction and data analysis. At present over 3.8 million lines of C++ code (and close to 6 million total lines of code) are maintained by an active worldwide developer community. In order to run the experiment software efficiently at hundreds of computing centres it is essential to maintain a high level of software quality standards. The methods proposed to improve software quality practices by incorporating checks into the new ATLAS software build infrastructure.

Software dependability in the Tandem GUARDIAN system

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Inhwan; Iyer, Ravishankar K.

1995-01-01

Based on extensive field failure data for Tandem's GUARDIAN operating system this paper discusses evaluation of the dependability of operational software. Software faults considered are major defects that result in processor failures and invoke backup processes to take over. The paper categorizes the underlying causes of software failures and evaluates the effectiveness of the process pair technique in tolerating software faults. A model to describe the impact of software faults on the reliability of an overall system is proposed. The model is used to evaluate the significance of key factors that determine software dependability and to identify areas for improvement. An analysis of the data shows that about 77% of processor failures that are initially considered due to software are confirmed as software problems. The analysis shows that the use of process pairs to provide checkpointing and restart (originally intended for tolerating hardware faults) allows the system to tolerate about 75% of reported software faults that result in processor failures. The loose coupling between processors, which results in the backup execution (the processor state and the sequence of events) being different from the original execution, is a major reason for the measured software fault tolerance. Over two-thirds (72%) of measured software failures are recurrences of previously reported faults. Modeling, based on the data, shows that, in addition to reducing the number of software faults, software dependability can be enhanced by reducing the recurrence rate.

Automated Software Vulnerability Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Sezer, Emre C.; Kil, Chongkyung; Ning, Peng

Despite decades of research, software continues to have vulnerabilities. Successful exploitations of these vulnerabilities by attackers cost millions of dollars to businesses and individuals. Unfortunately, most effective defensive measures, such as patching and intrusion prevention systems, require an intimate knowledge of the vulnerabilities. Many systems for detecting attacks have been proposed. However, the analysis of the exploited vulnerabilities is left to security experts and programmers. Both the human effortinvolved and the slow analysis process are unfavorable for timely defensive measure to be deployed. The problem is exacerbated by zero-day attacks.

Reliability evaluation of I-123 ADAM SPECT imaging using SPM software and AAL ROI methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Bang-Hung [Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Department of Nuclear Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan (China); Tsai, Sung-Yi [Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Department of Imaging Medical, St.Martin De Porres Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan (China); Wang, Shyh-Jen [Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Department of Nuclear Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan (China); Su, Tung-Ping; Chou, Yuan-Hwa [Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Chen, Chia-Chieh [Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Longtan, Taiwan (China); Chen, Jyh-Cheng, E-mail: jcchen@ym.edu.tw [Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan (China)

2011-08-21

The level of serotonin was regulated by serotonin transporter (SERT), which is a decisive protein in regulation of serotonin neurotransmission system. Many psychiatric disorders and therapies were also related to concentration of cerebral serotonin. I-123 ADAM was the novel radiopharmaceutical to image SERT in brain. The aim of this study was to measure reliability of SERT densities of healthy volunteers by automated anatomical labeling (AAL) method. Furthermore, we also used statistic parametric mapping (SPM) on a voxel by voxel analysis to find difference of cortex between test and retest of I-123 ADAM single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images. Twenty-one healthy volunteers were scanned twice with SPECT at 4 h after intravenous administration of 185 MBq of {sup 123}I-ADAM. The image matrix size was 128x128 and pixel size was 3.9 mm. All images were obtained through filtered back-projection (FBP) reconstruction algorithm. Region of interest (ROI) definition was performed based on the AAL brain template in PMOD version 2.95 software package. ROI demarcations were placed on midbrain, pons, striatum, and cerebellum. All images were spatially normalized to the SPECT MNI (Montreal Neurological Institute) templates supplied with SPM2. And each image was transformed into standard stereotactic space, which was matched to the Talairach and Tournoux atlas. Then differences across scans were statistically estimated on a voxel by voxel analysis using paired t-test (population main effect: 2 cond's, 1 scan/cond.), which was applied to compare concentration of SERT between the test and retest cerebral scans. The average of specific uptake ratio (SUR: target/cerebellum-1) of {sup 123}I-ADAM binding to SERT in midbrain was 1.78{+-}0.27, pons was 1.21{+-}0.53, and striatum was 0.79{+-}0.13. The cronbach's {alpha} of intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.92. Besides, there was also no significant statistical finding in cerebral area using SPM2

Modeling high-Power Accelerators Reliability-SNS LINAC (SNS-ORNL); MAX LINAC (MYRRHA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pitigoi, A. E.; Fernandez Ramos, P.

2013-01-01

Improving reliability has recently become a very important objective in the field of particle accelerators. The particle accelerators in operation are constantly undergoing modifications, and improvements are implemented using new technologies, more reliable components or redundant schemes (to obtain more reliability, strength, more power, etc.) A reliability model of SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) LINAC has been developed within MAX project and analysis of the accelerator systems reliability has been performed within the MAX project, using the Risk Spectrum reliability analysis software. The analysis results have been evaluated by comparison with the SNS operational data. Results and conclusions are presented in this paper, oriented to identify design weaknesses and provide recommendations for improving reliability of MYRRHA linear accelerator. The SNS reliability model developed for the MAX preliminary design phase indicates possible avenues for further investigation that could be needed to improve the reliability of the high-power accelerators, in view of the future reliability targets of ADS accelerators.

A 'Toolbox' Equivalent Process for Safety Analysis Software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Kula, K.R.; Eng, Tony

2004-01-01

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Recommendation 2002-1 (Quality Assurance for Safety-Related Software) identified a number of quality assurance issues on the use of software in Department of Energy (DOE) facilities for analyzing hazards, and designing and operating controls that prevent or mitigate potential accidents. The development and maintenance of a collection, or 'toolbox', of multiple-site use, standard solution, Software Quality Assurance (SQA)-compliant safety software is one of the major improvements identified in the associated DOE Implementation Plan (IP). The DOE safety analysis toolbox will contain a set of appropriately quality-assured, configuration-controlled, safety analysis codes, recognized for DOE-broad, safety basis applications. Currently, six widely applied safety analysis computer codes have been designated for toolbox consideration. While the toolbox concept considerably reduces SQA burdens among DOE users of these codes, many users of unique, single-purpose, or single-site software may still have sufficient technical justification to continue use of their computer code of choice, but are thwarted by the multiple-site condition on toolbox candidate software. The process discussed here provides a roadmap for an equivalency argument, i.e., establishing satisfactory SQA credentials for single-site software that can be deemed ''toolbox-equivalent''. The process is based on the model established to meet IP Commitment 4.2.1.2: Establish SQA criteria for the safety analysis ''toolbox'' codes. Implementing criteria that establish the set of prescriptive SQA requirements are based on implementation plan/procedures from the Savannah River Site, also incorporating aspects of those from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (SNL component) and the Yucca Mountain Project. The major requirements are met with evidence of a software quality assurance plan, software requirements and design documentation, user's instructions, test report, a

Component reliability analysis for development of component reliability DB of Korean standard NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, S. Y.; Han, S. H.; Kim, S. H.

2002-01-01

The reliability data of Korean NPP that reflects the plant specific characteristics is necessary for PSA and Risk Informed Application. We have performed a project to develop the component reliability DB and calculate the component reliability such as failure rate and unavailability. We have collected the component operation data and failure/repair data of Korean standard NPPs. We have analyzed failure data by developing a data analysis method which incorporates the domestic data situation. And then we have compared the reliability results with the generic data for the foreign NPPs

Performance analysis and optimization of an advanced pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plant through a visual basic software tool (PWWT.VB).

Science.gov (United States)

Pal, Parimal; Thakura, Ritwik; Chakrabortty, Sankha

2016-05-01

A user-friendly, menu-driven simulation software tool has been developed for the first time to optimize and analyze the system performance of an advanced continuous membrane-integrated pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plant. The software allows pre-analysis and manipulation of input data which helps in optimization and shows the software performance visually on a graphical platform. Moreover, the software helps the user to "visualize" the effects of the operating parameters through its model-predicted output profiles. The software is based on a dynamic mathematical model, developed for a systematically integrated forward osmosis-nanofiltration process for removal of toxic organic compounds from pharmaceutical wastewater. The model-predicted values have been observed to corroborate well with the extensive experimental investigations which were found to be consistent under varying operating conditions like operating pressure, operating flow rate, and draw solute concentration. Low values of the relative error (RE = 0.09) and high values of Willmott-d-index (d will = 0.981) reflected a high degree of accuracy and reliability of the software. This software is likely to be a very efficient tool for system design or simulation of an advanced membrane-integrated treatment plant for hazardous wastewater.

Reliability Analysis for Safety Grade PLC(POSAFE-Q)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Kyung Chul; Song, Seung Whan; Park, Gang Min; Hwang, Sung Jae

2012-01-01

Safety Grade PLC(Programmable Logic Controller), POSAFE-Q, was developed recently in accordance with nuclear regulatory and requirements. In this paper, describe reliability analysis for digital safety grade PLC (especially POSAFE-Q). Reliability analysis scope is Prediction, Calculation of MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure), FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis), PFD (Probability of Failure on Demand). (author)

Engineering bioinformatics: building reliability, performance and productivity into bioinformatics software.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawlor, Brendan; Walsh, Paul

2015-01-01

There is a lack of software engineering skills in bioinformatic contexts. We discuss the consequences of this lack, examine existing explanations and remedies to the problem, point out their shortcomings, and propose alternatives. Previous analyses of the problem have tended to treat the use of software in scientific contexts as categorically different from the general application of software engineering in commercial settings. In contrast, we describe bioinformatic software engineering as a specialization of general software engineering, and examine how it should be practiced. Specifically, we highlight the difference between programming and software engineering, list elements of the latter and present the results of a survey of bioinformatic practitioners which quantifies the extent to which those elements are employed in bioinformatics. We propose that the ideal way to bring engineering values into research projects is to bring engineers themselves. We identify the role of Bioinformatic Engineer and describe how such a role would work within bioinformatic research teams. We conclude by recommending an educational emphasis on cross-training software engineers into life sciences, and propose research on Domain Specific Languages to facilitate collaboration between engineers and bioinformaticians.

Engineering bioinformatics: building reliability, performance and productivity into bioinformatics software

Science.gov (United States)

Lawlor, Brendan; Walsh, Paul

2015-01-01

There is a lack of software engineering skills in bioinformatic contexts. We discuss the consequences of this lack, examine existing explanations and remedies to the problem, point out their shortcomings, and propose alternatives. Previous analyses of the problem have tended to treat the use of software in scientific contexts as categorically different from the general application of software engineering in commercial settings. In contrast, we describe bioinformatic software engineering as a specialization of general software engineering, and examine how it should be practiced. Specifically, we highlight the difference between programming and software engineering, list elements of the latter and present the results of a survey of bioinformatic practitioners which quantifies the extent to which those elements are employed in bioinformatics. We propose that the ideal way to bring engineering values into research projects is to bring engineers themselves. We identify the role of Bioinformatic Engineer and describe how such a role would work within bioinformatic research teams. We conclude by recommending an educational emphasis on cross-training software engineers into life sciences, and propose research on Domain Specific Languages to facilitate collaboration between engineers and bioinformaticians. PMID:25996054

IFDOTMETER: A New Software Application for Automated Immunofluorescence Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Arribas, Mario; Pizarro-Estrella, Elisa; Gómez-Sánchez, Rubén; Yakhine-Diop, S M S; Gragera-Hidalgo, Antonio; Cristo, Alejandro; Bravo-San Pedro, Jose M; González-Polo, Rosa A; Fuentes, José M

2016-04-01

Most laboratories interested in autophagy use different imaging software for managing and analyzing heterogeneous parameters in immunofluorescence experiments (e.g., LC3-puncta quantification and determination of the number and size of lysosomes). One solution would be software that works on a user's laptop or workstation that can access all image settings and provide quick and easy-to-use analysis of data. Thus, we have designed and implemented an application called IFDOTMETER, which can run on all major operating systems because it has been programmed using JAVA (Sun Microsystems). Briefly, IFDOTMETER software has been created to quantify a variety of biological hallmarks, including mitochondrial morphology and nuclear condensation. The program interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it useful for users not familiar with computer handling. By setting previously defined parameters, the software can automatically analyze a large number of images without the supervision of the researcher. Once analysis is complete, the results are stored in a spreadsheet. Using software for high-throughput cell image analysis offers researchers the possibility of performing comprehensive and precise analysis of a high number of images in an automated manner, making this routine task easier. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Assessing Software Quality Through Visualised Cohesion Metrics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy Shih

2001-05-01

Full Text Available Cohesion is one of the most important factors for software quality as well as maintainability, reliability and reusability. Module cohesion is defined as a quality attribute that seeks for measuring the singleness of the purpose of a module. The module of poor quality can be a serious obstacle to the system quality. In order to design a good software quality, software managers and engineers need to introduce cohesion metrics to measure and produce desirable software. A highly cohesion software is thought to be a desirable constructing. In this paper, we propose a function-oriented cohesion metrics based on the analysis of live variables, live span and the visualization of processing element dependency graph. We give six typical cohesion examples to be measured as our experiments and justification. Therefore, a well-defined, well-normalized, well-visualized and well-experimented cohesion metrics is proposed to indicate and thus enhance software cohesion strength. Furthermore, this cohesion metrics can be easily incorporated with software CASE tool to help software engineers to improve software quality.

Power and performance software analysis and optimization

CERN Document Server

Kukunas, Jim

2015-01-01

Power and Performance: Software Analysis and Optimization is a guide to solving performance problems in modern Linux systems. Power-efficient chips are no help if the software those chips run on is inefficient. Starting with the necessary architectural background as a foundation, the book demonstrates the proper usage of performance analysis tools in order to pinpoint the cause of performance problems, and includes best practices for handling common performance issues those tools identify. Provides expert perspective from a key member of Intel's optimization team on how processors and memory

Weibull distribution in reliability data analysis in nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Yingfei; Zhang Zhijian; Zhang Min; Zheng Gangyang

2015-01-01

Reliability is an important issue affecting each stage of the life cycle ranging from birth to death of a product or a system. The reliability engineering includes the equipment failure data processing, quantitative assessment of system reliability and maintenance, etc. Reliability data refers to the variety of data that describe the reliability of system or component during its operation. These data may be in the form of numbers, graphics, symbols, texts and curves. Quantitative reliability assessment is the task of the reliability data analysis. It provides the information related to preventing, detect, and correct the defects of the reliability design. Reliability data analysis under proceed with the various stages of product life cycle and reliability activities. Reliability data of Systems Structures and Components (SSCs) in Nuclear Power Plants is the key factor of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA); reliability centered maintenance and life cycle management. The Weibull distribution is widely used in reliability engineering, failure analysis, industrial engineering to represent manufacturing and delivery times. It is commonly used to model time to fail, time to repair and material strength. In this paper, an improved Weibull distribution is introduced to analyze the reliability data of the SSCs in Nuclear Power Plants. An example is given in the paper to present the result of the new method. The Weibull distribution of mechanical equipment for reliability data fitting ability is very strong in nuclear power plant. It's a widely used mathematical model for reliability analysis. The current commonly used methods are two-parameter and three-parameter Weibull distribution. Through comparison and analysis, the three-parameter Weibull distribution fits the data better. It can reflect the reliability characteristics of the equipment and it is more realistic to the actual situation. (author)

One-Click Data Analysis Software for Science Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Vicente

2015-12-01

One of the important activities of ESA Science Operations Centre is to provide Data Analysis Software (DAS) to enable users and scientists to process data further to higher levels. During operations and post-operations, Data Analysis Software (DAS) is fully maintained and updated for new OS and library releases. Nonetheless, once a Mission goes into the "legacy" phase, there are very limited funds and long-term preservation becomes more and more difficult. Building on Virtual Machine (VM), Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies, this project has aimed at providing long-term preservation of Data Analysis Software for the following missions: - PIA for ISO (1995) - SAS for XMM-Newton (1999) - Hipe for Herschel (2009) - EXIA for EXOSAT (1983) Following goals have guided the architecture: - Support for all operations, post-operations and archive/legacy phases. - Support for local (user's computer) and cloud environments (ESAC-Cloud, Amazon - AWS). - Support for expert users, requiring full capabilities. - Provision of a simple web-based interface. This talk describes the architecture, challenges, results and lessons learnt gathered in this project.

Software vulnerability: Definition, modelling, and practical evaluation for E-mail: transfer software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kimura, Mitsuhiro

2006-01-01

This paper proposes a method of assessing software vulnerability quantitatively. By expanding the concept of the IPO (input-program-output) model, we first define the software vulnerability and construct a stochastic model. Then we evaluate the software vulnerability of the sendmail system by analyzing the actual security-hole data, which were collected from its release note. Also we show the relationship between the estimated software reliability and vulnerability of the analyzed system

Reliability Analysis of Tubular Joints in Offshore Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

1987-01-01

Reliability analysis of single tubular joints and offshore platforms with tubular joints is" presented. The failure modes considered are yielding, punching, buckling and fatigue failure. Element reliability as well as systems reliability approaches are used and illustrated by several examples....... Finally, optimal design of tubular.joints with reliability constraints is discussed and illustrated by an example....

Waste package reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pescatore, C.; Sastre, C.

1983-01-01

Proof of future performance of a complex system such as a high-level nuclear waste package over a period of hundreds to thousands of years cannot be had in the ordinary sense of the word. The general method of probabilistic reliability analysis could provide an acceptable framework to identify, organize, and convey the information necessary to satisfy the criterion of reasonable assurance of waste package performance according to the regulatory requirements set forth in 10 CFR 60. General principles which may be used to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative reliability of a waste package design are indicated and illustrated with a sample calculation of a repository concept in basalt. 8 references, 1 table

Development of an Environment for Software Reliability Model Selection

Science.gov (United States)

1992-09-01

now is directed to other related problems such as tools for model selection, multiversion programming, and software fault tolerance modeling... multiversion programming, 7. Hlardware can be repaired by spare modules, which is not. the case for software, 2-6 N. Preventive maintenance is very important

Swimming pool reactor reliability and safety analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Zhaohuan

1997-01-01

A reliability and safety analysis of Swimming Pool Reactor in China Institute of Atomic Energy is done by use of event/fault tree technique. The paper briefly describes the analysis model, analysis code and main results. Meanwhile it also describes the impact of unassigned operation status on safety, the estimation of effectiveness of defense tactics in maintenance against common cause failure, the effectiveness of recovering actions on the system reliability, the comparison of occurrence frequencies of the core damage by use of generic and specific data

Probabilistic risk assessment course documentation. Volume 3. System reliability and analysis techniques, Session A - reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lofgren, E.V.

1985-08-01

This course in System Reliability and Analysis Techniques focuses on the quantitative estimation of reliability at the systems level. Various methods are reviewed, but the structure provided by the fault tree method is used as the basis for system reliability estimates. The principles of fault tree analysis are briefly reviewed. Contributors to system unreliability and unavailability are reviewed, models are given for quantitative evaluation, and the requirements for both generic and plant-specific data are discussed. Also covered are issues of quantifying component faults that relate to the systems context in which the components are embedded. All reliability terms are carefully defined. 44 figs., 22 tabs

Sensitivity analysis on the effect of software-induced common cause failure probability in the computer-based reactor trip system unavailability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamyab, Shahabeddin; Nematollahi, Mohammadreza; Shafiee, Golnoush

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Importance and sensitivity analysis has been performed for a digitized reactor trip system. ► The results show acceptable trip unavailability, for software failure probabilities below 1E −4 . ► However, the value of Fussell–Vesley indicates that software common cause failure is still risk significant. ► Diversity and effective test is founded beneficial to reduce software contribution. - Abstract: The reactor trip system has been digitized in advanced nuclear power plants, since the programmable nature of computer based systems has a number of advantages over non-programmable systems. However, software is still vulnerable to common cause failure (CCF). Residual software faults represent a CCF concern, which threat the implemented achievements. This study attempts to assess the effectiveness of so-called defensive strategies against software CCF with respect to reliability. Sensitivity analysis has been performed by re-quantifying the models upon changing the software failure probability. Importance measures then have been estimated in order to reveal the specific contribution of software CCF in the trip failure probability. The results reveal the importance and effectiveness of signal and software diversity as applicable strategies to ameliorate inefficiencies due to software CCF in the reactor trip system (RTS). No significant change has been observed in the rate of RTS failure probability for the basic software CCF greater than 1 × 10 −4 . However, the related Fussell–Vesley has been greater than 0.005, for the lower values. The study concludes that consideration of risk associated with the software based systems is a multi-variant function which requires compromising among them in more precise and comprehensive studies

Visual querying and analysis of large software repositories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Voinea, Lucian; Telea, Alexandru

We present a software framework for mining software repositories. Our extensible framework enables the integration of data extraction from repositories with data analysis and interactive visualization. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework by presenting several case studies performed on

Review of Bruce A reactor regulating system software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-01

Each of the four reactor units at the Ontario Hydro Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station is controlled by the Reactor Regulating System (RRS) software running on digital computers. This research report presents an assessment of the quality and reliability of the RRS software based on a review of the RRS design documentation, an analysis of certain significant Event Reports (SERs), and an examination of selected software changes. We found that the RRS software requirements (i.e., what the software should do) were never clearly documented, and that design documents, which should describe how the requirements are implemented, are incomplete and inaccurate. Some RRS-related SERs (i.e., reports on unexpected incidents relating to the reactor control) implied that there were faults in the RRS, or that RRS changes should be made to help prevent certain unexpected events. The follow-up investigations were generally poorly documented, and so it could not usually be determined that problems were properly resolved. The Bruce A software change control procedures require improvement. For the software changes examined, there was insufficient evidence provided by Ontario Hydro that the required procedures regarding change approval, independent review, documentation updates, and testing were followed. Ontario Hydro relies on the expertise of their technical staff to modify the RRS software correctly; they have confidence in the software code itself, even if the documentation is not up-to-date. Ontario Hydro did not produce the documentation required for an independent formal assessment of the reliability of the RRS. (author). 37 refs., 3 figs.

Review of Bruce A reactor regulating system software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-12-01

Each of the four reactor units at the Ontario Hydro Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station is controlled by the Reactor Regulating System (RRS) software running on digital computers. This research report presents an assessment of the quality and reliability of the RRS software based on a review of the RRS design documentation, an analysis of certain significant Event Reports (SERs), and an examination of selected software changes. We found that the RRS software requirements (i.e., what the software should do) were never clearly documented, and that design documents, which should describe how the requirements are implemented, are incomplete and inaccurate. Some RRS-related SERs (i.e., reports on unexpected incidents relating to the reactor control) implied that there were faults in the RRS, or that RRS changes should be made to help prevent certain unexpected events. The follow-up investigations were generally poorly documented, and so it could not usually be determined that problems were properly resolved. The Bruce A software change control procedures require improvement. For the software changes examined, there was insufficient evidence provided by Ontario Hydro that the required procedures regarding change approval, independent review, documentation updates, and testing were followed. Ontario Hydro relies on the expertise of their technical staff to modify the RRS software correctly; they have confidence in the software code itself, even if the documentation is not up-to-date. Ontario Hydro did not produce the documentation required for an independent formal assessment of the reliability of the RRS. (author). 37 refs., 3 figs

Software that meets its Intent

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huisman, Marieke; Bos, Herbert; Brinkkemper, Sjaak; van Deursen, Arie; Groote, Jan Friso; Lago, Patricia; van de Pol, Jaco; Visser, Eelco; Margaria, Tiziana; Steffen, Bernhard

2016-01-01

Software is widely used, and society increasingly depends on its reliability. However, software has become so complex and it evolves so quickly that we fail to keep it under control. Therefore, we propose intents: fundamental laws that capture a software systems’ intended behavior (resilient,

Qualification of safety-critical software for digital reactor safety system in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Kee-Choon; Park, Gee-Yong; Kim, Jang-Yeol; Lee, Jang-Soo

2013-01-01

This paper describes the software qualification activities for the safety-critical software of the digital reactor safety system in nuclear power plants. The main activities of the software qualification processes are the preparation of software planning documentations, verification and validation (V and V) of the software requirements specifications (SRS), software design specifications (SDS) and codes, and the testing of the integrated software and integrated system. Moreover, the software safety analysis and software configuration management are involved in the software qualification processes. The V and V procedure for SRS and SDS contains a technical evaluation, licensing suitability evaluation, inspection and traceability analysis, formal verification, software safety analysis, and an evaluation of the software configuration management. The V and V processes for the code are a traceability analysis, source code inspection, test case and test procedure generation. Testing is the major V and V activity of the software integration and system integration phases. The software safety analysis employs a hazard operability method and software fault tree analysis. The software configuration management in each software life cycle is performed by the use of a nuclear software configuration management tool. Through these activities, we can achieve the functionality, performance, reliability, and safety that are the major V and V objectives of the safety-critical software in nuclear power plants. (author)

Effective Results Analysis for the Similar Software Products’ Orthogonality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion Ivan

2009-10-01

Full Text Available It is defined the concept of similar software. There are established conditions of archiving the software components. It is carried out the orthogonality evaluation and the correlation between the orthogonality and the complexity of the homogenous software components is analyzed. Shall proceed to build groups of similar software products, belonging to the orthogonality intervals. There are presented in graphical form the results of the analysis. There are detailed aspects of the functioning of the software product allocated for the orthogonality.

Introducing a New Software for Geodetic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Hjelle, Geir Arne; Dähnn, Michael; Fausk, Ingrid; Kirkvik, Ann-Silje; Mysen, Eirik

2017-04-01

At the Norwegian Mapping Authority, we are currently developing Where, a new software for geodetic analysis. Where is built on our experiences with the Geosat software, and will be able to analyse and combine data from VLBI, SLR, GNSS and DORIS. The software is mainly written in Python which has proved very fruitful. The code is quick to write and the architecture is easily extendable and maintainable, while at the same time taking advantage of well-tested code like the SOFA and IERS libraries. This presentation will show some of the current capabilities of Where, including benchmarks against other software packages, and outline our plans for further progress. In addition we will report on some investigations we have done experimenting with alternative weighting strategies for VLBI.

Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) Code Reference Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

C. L. Smith; K. J. Kvarfordt; S. T. Wood

2008-08-01

The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) is a software application developed for performing a complete probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) using a personal computer. SAPHIRE is funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and developed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The INL's primary role in this project is that of software developer. However, the INL also plays an important role in technology transfer by interfacing and supporting SAPHIRE users comprised of a wide range of PRA practitioners from the NRC, national laboratories, the private sector, and foreign countries. SAPHIRE can be used to model a complex system’s response to initiating events, quantify associated damage outcome frequencies, and identify important contributors to this damage (Level 1 PRA) and to analyze containment performance during a severe accident and quantify radioactive releases (Level 2 PRA). It can be used for a PRA evaluating a variety of operating conditions, for example, for a nuclear reactor at full power, low power, or at shutdown conditions. Furthermore, SAPHIRE can be used to analyze both internal and external initiating events and has special features for transforming models built for internal event analysis to models for external event analysis. It can also be used in a limited manner to quantify risk in terms of release consequences to both the public and the environment (Level 3 PRA). SAPHIRE includes a separate module called the Graphical Evaluation Module (GEM). GEM provides a highly specialized user interface with SAPHIRE that automates SAPHIRE process steps for evaluating operational events at commercial nuclear power plants. Using GEM, an analyst can estimate the risk associated with operational events in a very efficient and expeditious manner. This reference guide will introduce the SAPHIRE Version 7.0 software. A brief discussion of the purpose and history of the software is included along with

Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) Code Reference Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

C. L. Smith; K. J. Kvarfordt; S. T. Wood

2006-07-01

The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) is a software application developed for performing a complete probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) using a personal computer. SAPHIRE is funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and developed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The INL's primary role in this project is that of software developer. However, the INL also plays an important role in technology transfer by interfacing and supporting SAPHIRE users comprised of a wide range of PRA practitioners from the NRC, national laboratories, the private sector, and foreign countries. SAPHIRE can be used to model a complex system’s response to initiating events, quantify associated damage outcome frequencies, and identify important contributors to this damage (Level 1 PRA) and to analyze containment performance during a severe accident and quantify radioactive releases (Level 2 PRA). It can be used for a PRA evaluating a variety of operating conditions, for example, for a nuclear reactor at full power, low power, or at shutdown conditions. Furthermore, SAPHIRE can be used to analyze both internal and external initiating events and has special features for ansforming models built for internal event analysis to models for external event analysis. It can also be used in a limited manner to quantify risk in terms of release consequences to both the public and the environment (Level 3 PRA). SAPHIRE includes a separate module called the Graphical Evaluation Module (GEM). GEM provides a highly specialized user interface with SAPHIRE that automates SAPHIRE process steps for evaluating operational events at commercial nuclear power plants. Using GEM, an analyst can estimate the risk associated with operational events in a very efficient and expeditious manner. This reference guide will introduce the SAPHIRE Version 7.0 software. A brief discussion of the purpose and history of the software is included along with