Functional Safety Terms and Acronyms

This list of functional safety terms and acronyms has been compiled from a number of sources listed at the end including the IEC 61508, IEC 61511 (ISA84.01) standards. It is meant to provide a general reference for engineers practicing safety lifecycle engineering in the process industry. As such it provides both safety and related non-safety term definitions in a clear useable form. It specifically highlights the most important terms and acronyms from the safety lifecycle standards with working level definitions. The reader is encouraged to pursue IEC 61508 or IEC 61511 for additional definitions and for additional information on applying the safety lifecycle to the process industry. Comments and feedback on this document are welcome and can be sent to info@exida.com noting the title and version of the document.

The definitions appearing in this glossary are provided solely for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be complete descriptions of all terms, conditions and exclusions applicable to the practice of safety engineering. Also, in the case of any inconsistency between the definitions in this glossary and the definitions appearing in the applicable codes and standards, the definitions contained in the those codes and standards shall govern.

Issued for general distribution: Version 1.0 on 24 November 2006 by Dr. Eric W. Scharpf, CFSE.

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