Certificate in Safety Instrumentation Systems for Process Industries

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

After completing this course, you will understand:

• Fundamentals of risk assessment and the role of safety regulations
• Process hazard study methods including HAZOP
• Principles of risk reduction by safety instrumented systems (SIS)
• The differences between a basic control system and an SIS
• The roles of standards IEC 61508 and IEC 61511
• The principles and application of the safety life cycle for project management
• The meaning and implications of safety integrity levels (SILs)
• How to use fault tree analysis to predict accident rates and failure rates
• How SIL targets are determined
• The role of alarms in safety critical applications
• How to design the SIS to meet IEC requirements for SIL targets
• Key features of safety certified PLCs
• Understand failure modes and the concepts of fault tolerance
• How to calculate failure probabilities for single and redundant SIS designs
• How to select instruments and controllers suitable for safety systems
• How to manage the application software project for your safety system
• Methods for avoidance of spurious trips
• How to optimize proof testing intervals

 

OVERVIEW

This course is for engineers and technicians who wish to develop their knowledge of the design and implementation of safety instrumented systems as applied to industrial processes. Safety control systems are widely used in hazardous processes to protect people, the environment and equipment against serious harm. Many countries look for compliance to international standards IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 as a benchmark of acceptable quality in design and management of safety controls.

This course will explain the key requirements of the IEC 61511 standard for all stages of the safety project from hazard and risk assessment studies through to hardware and softwareengineering and on to the maintenance and proof testing regimes. Practical examples and discussions will assist you to develop your skills in this most important aspect of instrument engineering.

 

COURSE OUTLINE

UNIT 1: Overview of Safety Instrumented Systems

Safety system basics with an example SIS
Hazards, risks and risk reduction
Principles of safety management
Functional safety standards IEC 61508/61511
Setting SIL targets
Designing to meet SIL targets
Cost of ownership

UNIT 2: Safety Life Cycle Models
 

Purpose of life cycle models
IEC 61511 requirements
Step by step activities

UNIT 3: Hazard Study Methods

Hazard studies and project stages
Hazard identification methods
HAZOP method
Developing SIS requirements
Fault tree analysis

UNIT 4: Risk Reduction by SIS

Deciding risk targets
Principle of ALARP and tolerable risk
Layers of protection and role of alarms
Risk reduction models
Preparing a safety requirements Specification

UNIT 5: SIL Determination Methods

Quantitative and risk matrix methods
Risk graphs
Layers of protection analysis
Practical examples

UNIT 6: Designing SIS Structures

Design procedure steps
IEC 61511 guidelines
Architectures and fault tolerance
Choosing the right structures for the job

UNIT 7: Selecting Instruments for Safety Duties
 

Switches versus transmitters
Failure modes of sensors and actuators
Minimizing dangerous failures
Qualification by design and certification
Qualification by prior use
Smart instruments and diagnostic
Coverage

UNIT 8: Reliability Analysis

Purposes of reliability calculations
SIS failure modes, safe and dangerous
Formulae and how to use them
Worked examples
Obtaining reliability data and the
problems
Review of software tools

UNIT 9: Safety-certified PLCs

Logic solvers, old and new
Development of safety PLCs
Hardware and software features
Review of industry types
Communications and networking
Integrated basic and safety control

UNIT 10: Application Software for Safety Duties

The problem with software
IEC software life cycle models
Application software steps
Factory acceptance testing
Quality assurance and certification

UNIT 11: Documentation and Management
 

Documents needed for the SIS project
Verification and validation
Operations
Management of change
 

UNIT 12: Diagnostics and Proof Testing

Proof testing and why it is needed
Testing of sensors
Partial closure testing of valves
Optimizing the proof test interval