KB3 in 4 questions

Who am I?

I am a software to help perform systems safety, dependability, performance and security studies.
 

For whom?

For companies with facilities whose failures can be very costly or endanger human life.

What is it used for?

Using my graphical interface, my users can assemble generic components to build complex system models to calculate their probability of failure. I am able to turn the data entered into low-level computational models that would be excessively difficult to build "by hand", such as fault trees. The generic models that I exploit are grouped in libraries or "knowledge bases", written in a language that is formal, yet easy to understand because close to the natural language: the Figaro language.

An example?

I was asked to evaluate the reliability of a datacenter's power supply. Despite a complex and seemingly redundant system schema, I was able to demonstrate the existence of a weak point: a single failure could cause an outage of all power supplies, with catastrophic consequences for the datacenter operator. From there, it was possible to propose changes in the structure of the system, which allowed to divide the unavailability of the system by a factor of more than 100.

General Information

KB3 is a graphical user interface for creating, interactively simulating, and transforming system dependability models into quantitative models, starting from generic models available in libraries.

KB3 is a registered trademark.
Since 2019, EDF has been working with Lloyd’s Register, publisher of the RiskSpectrum software, to link the two RiskSpectrum and KB3 tools.
Discipline: System dependability, safety and security
 

Code under license: Yes
Execution environment: Windows
Coupling with other codes:
  • FigaroIDE: to edit libraries to be loaded in KB3
  • RiskSpectrum, Figseq, YAMS: to perform probability calculations from models built in KB3

What uses for KB3?

Which manufacturers, companies, entities are targeted by this code?
► Any industrial operator of systems whose failure can have serious consequences.
 
 Which manufacturers, companies, entities have already used this code? 
► EDF, Renault, ESKOM, DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement).
 
 Examples of case studies / use cases:
► EDF has used KB3 for all its production facilities (nuclear, thermal, hydraulic, renewable energy). EDF has also achieved thanks to KB3 services related to the reliability of power supplies for many industrial facilities.  

Technical points

Does the code have an interface?
► Yes, the input of the models is entirely graphical.
 
 What types of methods are implemented in the code?
► For interactive simulation: forward chaining on behaviour rules.
► For the generation of fault trees: backward chaining on these same rules.
 
  What input data is needed?
► Libraries, written in the Figaro object oriented modelling language. There are two types of libraries: the "engineering" libraries containing models of physical objects (pumps, valves ...) and the abstract libraries containing very generic objects and with rather simple behaviour, which one can use to model any type of system. 
 
What kind of results will we find in the output?
► KB3 does not directly provide a usable result. It is necessary to exploit the models which it makes it possible to build by a probabilities calculation code (cf. section coupling).


 

  • discrete event simulation
    system modeling

    KB3 - chiffre clés [Liste chiffres clés]

    fault trees

    reliability