Practical Industrial Safety, Risk Assessment, and

Shutdown Systems by Dave Macdonald

Publisher: Elsevier Science & Technology Books Oxford, UK
Pub. Date: January 2004

Definition of safety instrumentation

What is safety instrumentation?
Here is a typical definition.
(Origin: UK Health and Safety Executive: 'Out of Control')
'Safety instrumented systems are designed to respond to conditions of a plant that may be
hazardous in themselves or if no action were taken could eventually give rise to a hazard.
They must generate the correct outputs to prevent the hazard or mitigate the
consequences'
Abbreviation: The acronym SIS means ^safety instrumented system'. We probably
all know the subject by other names because of the different ways in which these systems
have been applied. Here are some of the other names in use:
• Trip and alarm system
• Emergency shutdown system
• Safety shutdown system
• Safety interlock system
• Safety related system (more general term for any system that maintains a safe
state for EUC)
Fig 1.1 defines the SIS as bounded by sensors, logic solver and actuators with associated
interfaces to users and the basic process control system. We are talking about automatic
control systems or devices that will protect persons, plant equipment or the environment
against harm that may arise from specified hazardous conditions.

Introduction to hazards and risks

The first part of the book is all about the identification of hazards and the reduction of the
risks they present.
What is a hazard and what is a risk?
A hazard is 'an inherent physical or chemical characteristic that has the potential for
causing harm to people, property, or the environment'
In chemical processes: 'It is the combination of a hazardous material, an operating
environment, and certain unplanned events that could result in an accident.'
Risk: 'Risk is usually defined as the combination of the severity and probability of an
event. In other words, how often can it happen and how bad is it when it does? Risk can
be evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively'
Roughly: RISK = FREQUENCY x CONSEQUENCE OF HAZARD
Consider the risk on a cricket field.

What do we mean by safety functions?

We mean any function that specifically provides safety in any situation. E.g. a seat belt in
a car, an air bag, a pressure relief valve on a boiler or an instrumented shutdown system.
Thus an air bag has a safety function to prevent injury in the event of collision. The safety
system of an air bag comprises the sensor, the release mechanism, the inflator and the bag
itself
1.7.3 Functional safety
The term 'functional safety' is a concept directed at the functioning of the safety device
or safety system itself It describes the aspect of safety that is associated with the
functioning of any device or system that is intended to provide safety. The best
description might be this one from the following journal article:
'Functional safety in the field of industrial automation' by Hartmut von Krosigk.
Computing and Control Engineering Journal (UK lEE) Feb 2000.
'In order to achieve functional safety of a machine or a plant the safety related
protective or control system must function correctly and, when a failure occurs, must
behave in a defined manner so that the plant or machine remains in safe state or is
brought into a safe state.'
Short form: 'Functional safety is that part of the overall safety of a plant that depends
on the correct functioning of its safety related systems.'
(Modified from lEC 61508 part 4.)
The next diagram shows how functional safety makes a contribution to overall safety.

Random hardware faults or systematic design errors - e.g. in software - or human

mistakes shall not result in a malfiinction of a safety related unit/system with the potential
consequence of:
• Injury or death of humans or
• Hazards to the environment or
• Loss of equipment or production
Then follows an explanation of the term 'unit/system'; for example:
• A simple device as a gas burner control unit
• A large distributed computer system like emergency shutdown and
fire & gas systems
• A field instrument
• The complete instrumented protective equipment of a plant
So we can conclude that functional safety is about the correct fiinctioning of a unit or
system designed to protect people and equipment from hazards.