TY - JOUR

T1 - Fundamental Principles of Alarm Design

A1 - Us,Tolga

A1 - Jensen,Niels

A1 - Lind,Morten

A1 - Jørgensen,Sten Bay

AU - Us,Tolga

AU - Jensen,Niels

AU - Lind,Morten

AU - Jørgensen,Sten Bay

PB - Symbio Community Forum and Harbin Engineering University

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Traditionally alarms are designed on the basis of empirical guidelines rather than on a sound scientific framework rooted in a theoretical foundation for process and control system design. This paper proposes scientific principles and a methodology for design of alarms based on a functional modeling technique (MFM) which represents a process in terms of its goals, functions and operating requirements. The reasoning capabilities of MFM enable identification of operational situations which threaten to generate an alarm and derivation of potential response scenarios. The design methodology can be applied to any engineering system which can be modeled by MFM. The methodology provides a set of alarms which can facilitate event interpretation and operator support for abnormal situation management. The proposed design methodology provides the information content of the alarms, but does not deal with alarm presentation or display design issues. A hydraulically powered grinding process is employed as an industrially relevant system to show the applicability of the proposed design methodology with promising results.

AB - Traditionally alarms are designed on the basis of empirical guidelines rather than on a sound scientific framework rooted in a theoretical foundation for process and control system design. This paper proposes scientific principles and a methodology for design of alarms based on a functional modeling technique (MFM) which represents a process in terms of its goals, functions and operating requirements. The reasoning capabilities of MFM enable identification of operational situations which threaten to generate an alarm and derivation of potential response scenarios. The design methodology can be applied to any engineering system which can be modeled by MFM. The methodology provides a set of alarms which can facilitate event interpretation and operator support for abnormal situation management. The proposed design methodology provides the information content of the alarms, but does not deal with alarm presentation or display design issues. A hydraulically powered grinding process is employed as an industrially relevant system to show the applicability of the proposed design methodology with promising results.

KW - functional modeling

KW - Alarm generation

KW - Interpretation

KW - Alarm design

UR - http://www.ijnsweb.com/?type=subscriber&action=journal

JO - International Journal of Nuclear Safety and Simulation

JF - International Journal of Nuclear Safety and Simulation

SN - 2185-0577

IS - 1

VL - 2

SP - 44

EP - 51

ER -