Recent high profile incidents and accidents within the process industries have refocused the need to undertake an in-depth review of the operational basis of safety.

Implementation of such key learning is required in order to specify minimum expected standards of control in locations where hazardous or flammable materials are being processed or stored and which are deemed capable of giving rise to a major incident or accident in the event of a loss of primary containment.

Adoption of best practices, such as following the functional safety lifecycle approach as found in IEC61511 and in particular the identification of the necessary risk reduction measures, is one approach to assist with improvements in operational safety.

To assist with the key requirements of Safety Integrity Level (SIL) assessments and the identification of the reliability and performance requirements of Safety Instrumented Systems as part of the overall risk reduction measures, the use of proven software tools for just this purpose is becoming integral to developing a structured and calibrated approach towards both this safety and design requirement. Any software tool to be used should be based on an extensive operational heritage in order to provide a comprehensive approach to the subject of identifying and assessing credible layers of protection.

ABB Engineering Services is based in Billingham, Teesside, UK. www.abbconnectIT/trac