A hardware fault is an event of a system component changing from functional to mal-functional. 

Risks of hardware faults

Operators typically have little or no opportunity to learn how to control rare situations, and are most likely to fail.

Examples

AF 447 - the speed sensors were blocked by ice

Do we need to protect from all hardware faults?

All system components are liable to fail. The system design should consider the implication of the fault on the system performance. If the fault does not affect the performance significantly, this may mean that the component might be redundant.

How to protect from hardware faults?

Protecting from hardware faults includes:

• Prevention, by ensuring high reliability  
• Detection, by the functional unit
• Alarming, troubleshooting and recovery, by the Alarm unit
• Escalation prevention, by the stations .

Faults in the operation of warning systems

In the design of warning systems, we need to consider all possible circumstances, such as a failure in a sensor or in the alarm system, and the failure of the operator to perceive the alarm (Weiler & Harel, 2011, download ).

Updated on 09 Jan 2017.