Functional Safety of Safety-Related Systems

This course enables students to understand and apply the principles of functional safety to the development and assessment of safety systems, based on the IEC 61508 standard. The course illustrates the primary elements of the Safety Lifecycle and how these are applied to the development of safety systems. It also covers the assessment of safety systems to confirm that functional requirements and risk reduction targets have been achieved. Students will develop expertise in the application of the techniques necessary to specify, implement and assess safety systems to meet the requirements of IEC 61508.

Outline Content

  • Introduction to functional safety – background, terminology and aims
  • The Safety Lifecycle (IEC 61508 view)
  • Hazard & risk analysis techniques
  • SIL selection (setting targets and requirements)
  • Safety requirements specification development
  • SIL and the design process
  • Beyond design lifecycle phases
  • Compliance demonstration
  • Safety/project lifecycle management

At the end of the course you should be able to:

  1. Define safety functions and target Safety Integrity Level (SIL) requirements which will reduce the associated risks to a tolerable level
  2. Apply the analysis methodologies to ensure that, when implemented, the safety systems achieve specified risk reduction targets
  3. Logically deduce how the level of risk reduction achieved by a safety system could be improved and when risk has been reduced to As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)

Who is this for?

Electrical and mechanical engineers, operators, HSE advisors and risk management practitioners.

What prior study is recommended?

Education, skills or experience equivalent to undergraduate level. Risktec courses: Principles of Risk Management, Hazard Identification.

How is it delivered?

CPD

20 learning hours

Self-paced, self-study

Find out more

Attendance only

F2F (2 days)