A method for modeling and analysis of directed weighted accident causation network (DWACN)

Jin Zhou, Weixiang Xu, Xin Guo and Jing Ding

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2015, vol. 437, issue C, 263-277

Abstract: Using complex network theory to analyze accidents is effective to understand the causes of accidents in complex systems. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to establish directed weighted accident causation network (DWACN) for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) in the UK, which is based on complex network and using event chains of accidents. DWACN is composed of 109 nodes which denote causal factors and 260 directed weighted edges which represent complex interrelationships among factors. The statistical properties of directed weighted complex network are applied to reveal the critical factors, the key event chains and the important classes in DWACN. Analysis results demonstrate that DWACN has characteristics of small-world networks with short average path length and high weighted clustering coefficient, and display the properties of scale-free networks captured by that the cumulative degree distribution follows an exponential function. This modeling and analysis method can assist us to discover the latent rules of accidents and feature of faults propagation to reduce accidents. This paper is further development on the research of accident analysis methods using complex network.

Keywords: Accident analysis; Directed weighted accident causation network (DWACN); Statistical properties of directed weighted complex network; Event chains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437115005403
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:437:y:2015:i:c:p:263-277

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.05.112

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().