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Methodology and Experience for Designing Safety-Related Systems in IEC 61508

Authors:
Zhe Chen
Gilles Motet

Keywords: safety-related system; IEC 61508; functional validity; verification; model checking; formal method; SPIN

Abstract:
The international standard IEC 61508 provides a generic process for electrical, electronic, or programmable electronic (E/E/PE) safety-related systems (SRS) to achieve an acceptable level of functional safety. This paper first proposes the concept of \emph{functional validity} of SRS, based on our observation on two important problems that occur in industrial practice, i.e., the rightness of overall and allocated safety requirements and the lack of technical methodologies for validating SRS. \emph{Functional validity} means whether the safety functions realized by SRS can really prevent accidents and recover the system from hazardous states, provided the expected safety integrity level is reached. Then this paper proposes a generic technical methodology to achieve the functional validity of SRS, and summarizes industrial experiences in designing functionally valid SRS. A concrete example is used to illustrate the proposed methodology.

Pages: 57 to 64

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2011

Publication date: August 21, 2011

Published in: conference

ISBN: 978-1-61208-149-6

Location: Nice/Saint Laurent du Var, France

Dates: from August 21, 2011 to August 27, 2011