A Review of Functional Safety Models for Public Safety Management Systems

This paper reviews various models used for enterprise process management systems and public safety systems. These models include probabilistic functional safety models, accident models such as causal-sequential event-based models, systemic models such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), reliability models, systemic models such as systems-theoretic accident model and processes (STAMP) model and cognitive models, among others. These models, along with their advantages and disadvantages, are discussed in detail. Existing public safety management systems and enterprise process management systems are also compared. Functionally safe communication systems for public safety, including those using wireless telecommunications such as LTE for Public Safety, are also discussed. In addition, this paper also explains some of the evolving legislation regarding managed energy and managed safety for both process and public management systems

The integration of hazard evaluation procedures and requirements engineering for safety-critical embedded systems

Although much work has been done on assessing safety requirements in programmable systems, one very important aspect, the integration of hazard evaluation procedures and requirements engineering, has been somewhat neglected. This thesis describes the derivation and application of a methodology, HAZAPS (HAZard Assessment in Programmable Systems). The methodology assists at the requirements stage in the development of safety-critical embedded systems. The objectives are to identify hazards in programmable systems, construct and model the associated safety requirements, and, finally, to assess these requirements. HAZAPS integrates safety engineering and software modelling techniques. The analysis of more than 300 computer related incidents provided the criteria used to identify, select and modify safety engineering techniques. [Continues.

Safety lifecycle management in the process industries : the development of a qualitative safety related information analysis technique

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Smart Reactor Production Monitoring System-an Industry 4.0 Application in the Chemical Industry

Decrease in costs. More production flexibility. More efficient processes. These are one of the common demands of manufacturing enterprises in almost every sector. In this marketplace where there is very serious competition, the most important factor in the chemical industry is competitiveness as in every sector. The best way to take advantage of competitive advantages can be with integrated and innovative electrification, automation and digitalization solutions. Completing the digital transformation includes many disciplines, from engineering and design to automation, information technology and lifecycle management. Adopting digitalization lies in the merging of different expert knowledge, working in many different disciplines that are complex, able to offer the best solution. This strategy is also the motivation behind the strategic cooperation initiated by the German government in 2011 to promote Industry 4.0. In this article, in a chemical factory that produces paint, the project implementation of industrial automation and control systems and the details of the collection, recording, monitoring and reporting of the requested information in accordance with the Industry 4.0 concept of this application are explained. The article explains in detail how a real Industry 4.0 software application is applied in the chemical industry producing paint and reveals the benefits of Industry 4.0 in process automation. At the same time, this project, which is described in this article and implemented in a real paint production factory, will give new ideas to the industrial enterprises that are trying to realize the fourth industrial revolution and digitalization which has been on the agenda recently

Applications of dynamic simulations in the process industries : a safety case study using Texas City refinery explosion

Although process safety performance in petroleum refineries is much better today compared to several decades ago, major accidents still occur occasionally. The explosion and fires at Texas City refinery on 23 March 2005 is regarded as one of the worst industrial accidents in US history to date. Dynamic process simulation provides an effective means to collect, collate and analyze data from previous incidents and offer recommendations of good practice to further improve process safety outcomes.A simulation of the sequence of events that led to the catastrophic explosions at Texas City refinery is presented in Aspen HYSYS. An initial steady state simulation of the operation of the raffinate splitter column at Texas City forms the basis for a subsequent dynamic simulation of the filling of the distillation column from 0213hrs until 1313hrs when the explosion occurred. A PID (proportional, integral, derivative) control scheme is implemented with appropriate tuning parameters.The dynamic simulation of the overall tower filling dynamics from 1000hrs to 1320hrs when the explosion occurred revealed that the feed to the column vaporised at approximately 1310 hrs. This happened as a result of the additional heat input into the column through the feed-product heat exchanger. Subsequently, thermal expansion of the liquid in the column led to the filling of the overhead vapour line with hydrocarbon liquids and an increase in pressure as a result of the hydrostatic liquid head. Flammable hydrocarbon vapours subsequently flowed from the overhead line through the collection headers into the blowdown drum. An alternative accident pathway is presented as the basis for a quantitative hazard and operability study, HAZOP

AN INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Monitoring environmental risks for public safety applications (i.e. fire prediction, landslides forecasting, sea/river monitoring, etc.) requires an accurate model of involved phenomenological aspects, entities, actors, stakeholders as well as their articulated interactions. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of such scenarios several models are typically developed to address both concerns and information needs of heterogeneous skilled actors (e.g. geologists, geophysicists, chemists, managers, etc.), generally resulting in a fragmented process design. This paper goes in the opposite direction, i.e., we introduce a framework for designing collaborative processes for environmental risk and emergency management processes at multiple levels of detail. More specifically, through the use of UML models we provide a detailed description of ”the system of systems” articulated scenario which proves to be effective in designing risk evaluation and assessment processes. The application case is that of the rock face collapse forecasting in the alps, where the hydrogeological risk affects urban areas implemented into a multidisciplinary research project, namely PROMETEO, that focused on civil and public protection. As further work we aim to describe the framework as an extension to the Unified Modeling Language (UML)

The organisational precursors to human automation interaction issues in safety-critical domains: the case of an automated alarm system from the air traffic management domain

Much has been written about the side effects of automation in complex safety-critical domains, such as air traffic management, aviation, nuclear power generation, and healthcare. Here, human factors and safety researchers have long acknowledged that the potential of automation to increase cost-effectiveness, quality of service and safety, is accompanied by undesired side effects or issues in human automation interaction (HAI). Such HAI issues may introduce the potential for increased confusion, uncertainty, and frustration amongst sharp end operators, i.e. the users of automation. These conditions may result in operators to refuse to use the automation, in impaired ability of operators to control the hazardous processes for which they are responsible, and in new, unintended paths to safety failure. The present thesis develops a qualitative framework of the organisational precursors to HAI issues (OPHAII) that can be found in safety-critical domains. Organisational precursors denote those organisational and managerial conditions that, although distant in time and space from the operational environment, may actually influence the quality of HAI found there. Such precursors have been extensively investigated by organisational safety (OS) scholars in relation to the occurrence of accidents and disasters—although not HAI issues. Thus, the framework’s development is motivated by the intent to explore the theoretical gap lying at the intersection between the OS area and the current perspectives on the problem—the human computer interaction (HCI) and the system lifecycle ones. While considering HAI issues as a design problem or a failure in human factors integration and/or safety assurance respectively, both perspectives, in fact, ignore, the organisational roots of the problem. The OPHAII framework was incrementally developed based on three qualitative studies: two successive, historical, case studies coupled with a third corroboratory expert study. The first two studies explored the organisational precursors to a known HAI issue: the nuisance alert problem relative to an automated alarm system from the air traffic management domain. In particular, the first case study investigated retrospectively the organisational response to the nuisance alert problem in the context of the alarm’s implementation and improvement in the US between 1977 and 2006. The second case study has a more contemporary focus, and examined at the organisational response to the same problem within two European Air Navigation Service Providers between 1990 and 2010. The first two studies produced a preliminary version of the framework. The third study corroborated and refined this version by subjecting it to the criticism from a panel of 11 subject matter experts. The resulting framework identifies three classes of organisational precursors: (i) the organisational assumptions driving automation adoption and improvement; (2) the availability of specific organisational capabilities for handling HAI issues; and (3) the control of implementation quality at the boundary between the service provider and the software manufacturer. These precursors advance current understanding of the organisational factors involved in the (successful and problematic) handling of HAI issues within safety-critical service provider organisations. Its dimensions support the view that HAI issues can be seen as and organisational phenomenon—an organisational problem that can be the target of analysis and improvements complementary to those identified by the HCI and the system lifecycle perspectives