A Failure Catalogue for the LHC

The operation of the LHC involves the risk of incidents leading to machine damage. In order to protect the investment of several billion CHF, a complex Machine Protection System (MPS) ensures safe LHC operation by reducing the risk for machine damage to an acceptable level. The protection system was designed based on a large number of possible failures of LHC equipment. So far, the knowledge of these failures, and the related machine protection functions implemented in the MPS, is distributed over the different teams involved in the design and operation of the LHC. A newly started project aims at bringing together this knowledge in a common failure catalogue. This paper introduces the approach and presents the first experience.