Safety analysis of a complex system using component-oriented fault trees

The invention relates to safety analysis of a complex system using component-oriented fault trees. A safety-analysis system 100 for a complex system such as an aircraft includes a system modeler 104 and model-analysis system 106. The system modeler 104 is configured to receive component fault-based models of respective components of which a system is composed, such as from a library of component fault-based models in storage. The component fault-based models include transfer functions expressed as fault trees 500 each of which describes behavior of a respective component in an event of a failure of the respective component or of an external input 404 to the component. The system modeler 104 is also configured to assemble the component fault-based models into a system fault-based model of the system, with the system fault-based model including a transfer function expressed as an assembly of the fault trees 500 of the component fault-based models. The model-analysis system 106, then, is configured to perform a safety analysis using the system fault-based model.