Simulation of interactions and emergent failure behavior during complex system design

Emergent behavior is a unique aspect of complex systems, where they exhibit behavior that is more complex than the sum of the behavior of their constituent parts. This behav-ior includes the propagation of faults between parts, and requires information on how the parts are connected. These parts can include software, electronic and mechanical compo-nents, hence requiring a capability to track emergent fault propagation paths as they cross the boundaries of technical disciplines. Prior work has introduced the functional failure identification and propagation (FFIP) simulation framework, which reveals the propagation of abnormal flow states and can thus be used to infer emergent system-wide behavior that may compromise the reliability of the system. An advantage of FFIP is that it is used to model early phase designs, before high cost commitments are made and before high fidelity models are available. This has also been a weakness in previous research on FFIP, since results depend on arbitrary choices for the values of model pa-rameters and timing of critical events. Previously, FFIP has used a discrete set of flow state values and a simple behavioral logic; this has had the advantage of limiting the range of possible parameter values, but it has not been possible to model continuous pro