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Entries tagged with: SIL

  • by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
  • Thursday, January 12, 2012
  • News

2011…A Year in Review

Babies, Bathwater, and Australian Safety Laws

The old saying goes, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” But it looks like a number of people in Australia may be in danger of doing just that with their response to the country’s newly harmonized health and safety laws.

Australia’s new Read More...

Back to Basics 10 – How Does a Product Get a SIL?

Back to Basics 10 – How Does a Product Get a SIL?

IEC 61508 functional safety standard indicates Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) needs to be evaluated by three design barriers:

  • The Systematic Capability Rating
  • The Architectural Constraints for the Element
  • The Probability of Failure for the Product

What Makes a SIL?

Systematic Capability is achieved when the equipment…

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Back to Basics 11 – How is SIL Used by an End User?

Back to Basics 11 – How is SIL Used by an End User?

Back to Basics 16 - PFDavg

Back to Basics 16 - PFDavg

PFDavg (the average Probability of Failure on Demand) is the probability that a system will fail dangerously, and not be able to perform its safety function when required. PFDavg can be determined as an average probability or maximum probability over a time period. IEC 61508 and IEC…

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Back to Basics 17 - PFH (Probability of Failure on Demand per Hour)

Back to Basics 17 - PFH (Probability of Failure on Demand per Hour)

PFH (The Probability of Failure on Demand per Hour)  is the probability that a system will fail dangerously, and not be able to perform its safety function when required. PFH can be determined as a probability or maximum probability over a time period of an hour. IEC…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates

Back to Basics: Failure Rates

Failure rates are the number of failures per unit time for a piece of equipment which are usually assumed to be a constant value. They can be broken down into several categories, such as safe and dangerous, detected and undetected, and independent/normal and common cause. Failure rates are often…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - FIT

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - FIT

Failures ITime or Failure UnIT

FIT is the number of failures per billion hours for a piece of equipment. 

It is mentioned in both IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 standards as a preferred unit of measurement expressed by 109 hours.

Example: 5 FIT is expressed as 5 failures within 109 hours . 

When you…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λ

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λ

The Greek symbol lambda, λ, represents failure rates in functional safety, usually expressed in the unit of measurement of FITS.

λ can be expressed as a total failure rate for a device (λT), or it can be broken down into more specific groupings:

  • Safe detected (λSD)
  • Safe undetected (λSU)
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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λD

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λD

The Greek symbol  λD represents dangerous failure rates in functional safety, usually expressed in the unit of measurement of FITs, and can be determined through FMEDAs. (FITs (λ) are failures per billion hours, expressed by 10-9 hours).

λD is the number of dangerous failures per…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λDD

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λDD

The Greek symbol  λDD is the detectable dangerous failure rate in functional safety expressed in the unit of measurement of FITs which can be determined through FMEDAs. (FITs (λ) are failures per billion hours, expressed by 10-9 hours).

Lambda DD

λDD is the number of…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λDU

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λDU

The Greek symbol  λDU is the undetectable dangerous failure rate in functional safety expressed in the unit of measurement of FITs which can be determined through FMEDAs. (FITs (λ) are failures per billion hours, expressed by 10-9 hours).

λDU is the number of dangerous undetected failures…

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Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λS

Back to Basics: Failure Rates - λS

The Greek symbol  λS represents safe or spurious failure rates in functional safety expressed in the unit of measurement of FITs which can be determined through FMEDAs. (FITs (λ) are failures per billion hours, expressed by 10-9 hours).

λS is the number of safe…

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Best Practices in Achieving Functional Safety in Turbine Applications - Part 1

The adoption of the functional safety standards continues to gain momentum in turbine applications. Both industrial and power turbine sites are now requiring compliance to IEC 61511. This blog will review both technical requirements and market trends related to functional safety system design. Market trends will cover which standards…

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  • by Chris O'Brien, CFSE
  • Thursday, January 07, 2016
  • Certification

Best Practices in Achieving Functional Safety in Turbine Applications - Part 3

The adoption of the functional safety standards continues to gain momentum in turbine applications. Both industrial and power turbine sites are now requiring compliance to IEC 61511. This blog will review both technical requirements and market trends related to functional safety system design. Market trends will cover which standards…

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  • by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
  • Thursday, May 12, 2011
  • Certification

Buy Certified Equipment, Meet the Standard, Right? WRONG!

  • by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
  • Thursday, March 21, 2013
  • Software

Changing the PVST Interval. Hey, my Architectural Constraints changed!

Close Enough? Not so Much
  • by Denise Chastain Knight, P.E., CFSE, CCPSC
  • Wednesday, May 27, 2015
  • Functional Safety

Close Enough? Not so Much

Performing a SIL Verification calculation on preliminary design information can be a very useful tool to dial in the Safety Instrumented Function (SIF), Safety Requirements Specification (SRS) content , and define critical elements for the field component purchase specifications. Conceptual verification is typically performed quickly with general design information.…

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Do you believe the numbers?

In a couple of recent projects and discussions, I have come across something extremely concerning. Engineers are very good at performing accurate calculations, and the PFDavg and PFH computations for SIL performance verification are improving in precision all the time. Unfortunately, there is often such a focus…

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Functional Safety, Cybersecurity, and Alarm Management in 2013
  • by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
  • Friday, January 10, 2014
  • Certification

Functional Safety, Cybersecurity, and Alarm Management in 2013

2013 was a good year for functional safety progress.  exida Certification issued a record number of new product functional safety certifications in mostly every product category - valves, actuators, solenoid valves, PLCs, fire and gas sensors, process sensors, and components.  The component category is one of the most…

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