The ABB Guide to

Safety Critical Systems and International Standard IEC 61508

IEC 61508 Safety Lifecycle

Concept

ABB provides a total life cycle safety capability aligned to the IEC 61508 Safety
Lifecycle. We are the best-placed leading international company to be able to advise
you on all phases from Concept (1) to Decommissioning (16), including the Hazard and
Risk Analysis which is necessary to determine the overall safety requirements of any
plant or process. In addition, ABB offers a comprehensive selection of instrumentation
and other equipment required to implement fully safety compliant plant, whether as
stand alone products or in fully integrated packages. These are supported by our
installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and other services.

Overall Scope Definition

Hazard Risk Analysis

Overall Operation
& Maintenance
Planning

Overall
Validation
Planning

Overall Safety Requirements

Safety Requirements Allocation

9
8

Pre-Design Phases 1-5

End User / Operator

Overall Planning
6

Overview of
Lifecycle Phases

Overall Installation
& Commissioning
Planning

12

Safety Related
Systems:
E / E / PES

Set the SIL target

10

Design and Installation

Phases 6-13
Safety Related
Systems:
Other
Technology

Realisation

11

(Engineering /
Equipment Supplier)

External Risk
Reduction
Facilities

Realisation

Design the architecture /

Provide the integrity
information

Realisation

Overall Installation
& Commissioning

Operation Phases 14-16

(End User / Operator)

13

Overall Safety Validation

14 Overall Operation & Maintenance

16

15

Operate & Test to

Verify Target SIL
= Design SIL = Operation.
Manage maintenance
and modifications

Overall Modification & Retrofit

Lifecycle repeats

Decommissioning

Pre-Design Phases 1 5 (End User / Operator)

Setting the SIL Target
Safety Integrity Levels

Typical Methodology

Safety
Integrity Level

Average Probability of
Failure on Demand (PFDavg)

% Reliability

1
2
3
4

0.1 to 0.01
0.01 to 0.001
0.001 to 0.0001
0.0001 to 0.00001

90% to 99%
99% to 99.9%
99.9% to 99.99%
99.99% to 99.999%

Hazard & Risk Analysis

Hazard studies and HAZOPs

Evaluate possible
consequences
Establish tolerable
frequencies vs ALARP

SIL Determination Methodologies

Risk
Graphs

CA

Starting point
for risk reduction
estimation

X1
X2

CB

FA
FB

CC

FA
FB

CD

Generalized arrangement
(in practical implementations
the arrangement is specific
to the applications to be
covered by the risk graph)

FA
FB

PA
PB

X3

PA
PB

X4

PA
PB

X5

PA
PB

X6

Introducing Risk Reduction and Risk Targets

W3

W2

W1

---

---

---

---= No safety requirements

a = No special safety requirements
b = A single SIF is not sufficient
1, 2, 3, 4 = Safety integrity level

C = Consequence parameter
F = Exposure time parameter
P = Probability of avoiding the hazardous event
W = In the absence of the SIF under consideration

Operations
On-going
Review

Identify
Potential
Hazardous
Events

Residual
risk

Assess
Risk

10

11

Design
Safety
Instrumented
Function

Initiating
cause
F.5
F.14.2

Initiation
likelihood
F.6
F.14.3

General
process
design
F.14.4

BPCS
F.14.5

Fire from
distillation
column
rupture

Loss of
cooling
water

0,1

0,1

0,1

Fire from
distillation
column
rupture

Steam
control
loop
failure

0,1

Alarms, Additional
IPL
InterSIF
etc.
mitigation, additional mediate integrity
F.14.6 restricted mitigation
event
level
access F.8 dikes,
likelihood
F.11
F.14.7
pressure
F.10
F.14.10
relief
F.14.9
F.9
F.14.8

Mitigated
event
likelihood
F.12
F.14.10

Notes

0,1

0,1

0,1

0,1

0,1

PRV 01

PRV 01

10-7

10-9

High
pressure
causes
column
rupture

10-6

10-2

10-2

10-8

Risk reduction
from SIS layer

Allocate
Risk
Reduction to
Technologies

OVERPRESSURIZATION
0.1/year

EXTERNAL EVENTS
(fire)

Risk reduction
from other
protection
layers

Assess
Required
Risk Reduction

Fault Tree
Analysis

Risk reduction
from other
non-SIS
prevention /
mitigation layers

Risk reduction achieved by all protection layers

Assess SIL
for Instrumented
Risk Reduction

Same
as
above

Process
risk

Actual risk reduction

Compare
with
Criteria

Overall
Lifecycle

PROTECTION LAYERS

Impact Severity
event
level
description
F.4
F.3
F.14.1
F.14.1

Residual
risk

Necessary risk reduction

Layer of Protection Analysis

#

Build event chain

Estimate demand rates
Define protection required
Specify required Safety
Integrity Level

For Safety Lifecycle and Hazard Analysis

advice, please call 01642 372000.
For details of relevant ABB
Instrumentation, Systems and Equipment,
please call 0870 600 6122.

BPCS FUNCTION
FAILS

Legend
BPCS
FAILS

SENSOR
FAILS

VALVE
STUCK

OR
Basic event
Transfer gate

www.abb.co.uk/instrumentation

Demand more from your instrumentation.

Demand more from your source.

ABB Limited, Howard Road, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 8EU, UK. Tel: 0870 600 6122

WP/SIL Issue 1 (09.03)