Cascading failure in power transmission
– Cascading failure is common in power grids when one element fails and shifts its load to nearby elements, causing them to become overloaded.
– This can result in a sudden spike in current across all nodes of the system, inducing further failures and potentially taking down the entire system.
– Monitoring the system in real-time and disconnecting parts can help stop a cascade.
– Calculating a safety margin for the system through computer simulation can also prevent cascading failures.
– The speed of the control signal is not faster than the speed of the propagating power overload, making it difficult to isolate the outage.
– Examples of cascading failures in power transmission include the blackout in Northeast America in 1965, blackout in Southern Brazil in 1999, blackout in Northeast America in 2003, blackout in Italy in 2003, and blackout in London in 2003.
Cascading failures in computer networks
– Cascading failures can occur in computer networks, such as the Internet, when crucial routers or nodes become overloaded or go down.
– Traffic is then routed to alternative paths, which can also become overloaded and go down, leading to further failures.
– Cascade failures can affect large groups of people and systems.
– Taking a node down for maintenance or upgrades can also cause cascade failures.
– Symptoms include packet loss, high network latency, and sections of the network becoming unreachable.
– The history of cascade failures in computer networks shows that they have become more common with the increase in traffic and interconnectivity between systems and networks.
– The term ‘cascade failure’ was first applied in the late 1990s by a Dutch IT professional.
– Network failures usually start with the failure of a single node, causing traffic to be rerouted through alternative paths.
– Redundant systems of ISPs respond quickly, but the alternative routes can become overloaded, leading to further failures.
– Related systems can also be affected, causing another cascade failure.
Cascading structural failure and fracture cascade
– Certain load-bearing structures can experience cascading failures, where the failure of one component increases the load on adjacent components.
– Properly designed structures use factors of safety and alternate load paths to prevent cascade failures.
– Fracture cascade is a phenomenon in geology where a single fracture triggers a chain reaction of subsequent fractures.
– Fracture cascades can occur in various materials, including rocks, ice, metals, and ceramics.
– In the context of osteoporosis, a fracture cascade refers to the increased risk of subsequent bone fractures after an initial one.
– Electronics, such as the Cockcroft-Walton generator and fragile glass photomultiplier tubes, can also experience cascade failures.
Cascading failures in finance
– Cascading failures of financial institutions are referred to as systemic risk.
– Failure of one financial institution can cause other interconnected institutions to fail.
– Too big to fail (TBTF) and too interconnected to fail (TICTF) institutions pose systemic risk.
– Interconnections between financial institutions contribute to systemic risk.
– Frameworks have been developed to study and predict the effects of cascading failures in finance.
Interdependent cascading failures
– Interdependent networks such as water supply, transportation, and power stations are coupled together.
– Random failures or targeted attacks can trigger cascading failures in interdependent networks.
– Electrical blackouts frequently result from cascading failures between interdependent networks.
– Large-scale blackouts have demonstrated the role of dependencies between networks.
– Interdependence can significantly magnify the damage in an interacting network system.
– The Motter-Lai model is a model for cascading failures due to overload propagation.
– Overload propagation can lead to cascading failures in various systems.
– Load balancing server misconfigurations can cause cascading failures.
– Worst-case cascading failures in power systems can be modeled and identified.
– Fracture cascades can be controlled through twisting and quenching. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_failure
A cascading failure is a failure in a system of interconnected parts in which the failure of one or few parts leads to the failure of other parts, growing progressively as a result of positive feedback. This can occur when a single part fails, increasing the probability that other portions of the system fail. Such a failure may happen in many types of systems, including power transmission, computer networking, finance, transportation systems, organisms, the human body, and ecosystems.
Cascading failures may occur when one part of the system fails. When this happens, other parts must then compensate for the failed component. This in turn overloads these nodes, causing them to fail as well, prompting additional nodes to fail one after another.
