Safety assessment

Abstract

Planning is a process which leads from acquired knowledge to new knowledge. Unknown materials, models, environments etc. can generate abnormal operating conditions with the risk of damage. Designers have a number of tools to protect themselves from this eventuality. The first concept that was introduced to guarantee the safety of a project is the safety factor. In general terms, a system has a safety factor when the collapse is expected with conditions markedly more rigorous than those provided as design requirements. However, in a vision closer to reality, the most correct way of addressing the problem consists in recognizing the probabilistic nature of each process in use of a product, involving not only artificial, but also human actions. Every product/service is naturally subjected to failures, but more than failure in itself, are the effects of a failure that give significance to the failure. Then not only the nominal functions (with no failures) but also the functions consequently to a failure must be considered as possible system’s operating conditions. In an initial presentation there will be set forth some basic concepts of system reliability as the probability of no failures, along with the tools most commonly used, such as FMEA which, by virtue of their semi-scientific content, take into account variables not necessarily “measurable” but, nevertheless, lead to a significant reduction of the risk associated with a “failure”.