Abstract
The general principles and features of fault tree analysis are described and illustrated by a simple example. The essence of this probabilistic approach is to provide a quantitative means by which the designer can make firmer decisions affecting safety. An inert gas system is considered to demonstrate the validity of the fault tree method. The concepts of the "minimal cut set" and "importance measures" are found to play a very central role in identifying the key element or weakest part of a system. The results obtained in general lend support to the view that marine hazard problems can be more consistently treated by adopting the fault tree analysis technique. (A)