A function-centered framework for reasoning about system failure at multiple levels of abstraction

This paper presents the knowledge organization for a simulation subsystem that is a component of a comprehensive expert system for failure modes and effects analysis. Organizing the simulation subsystem’s knowledge base around a function-centered ontology produces an architecture that facilitates reasoning about an engineering design at multiple levels of abstraction and throughout the life-cycle of the design. Moreover, the resulting architecture provides the capability for incorporating computer-aided analysis and design tools early on into the conceptual design of an engineering system before a commitment is made to a specific technology to implement the system’s behavior. The result is an expert system simulation knowledge source that can be used to reason about the effects of system failures based on conceptual designs, i.e. designs in which commitments to an underlying technology to achieve the system’s function have not yet been made but computer-aided assistance for reasoning about the system’s potential failure modes and effects is useful.