Control Systems Safety Evaluation and Reliability

Control Systems Safety Evaluation & Reliability explains how engineers measure and improve the safety and reliability of control systems used in process industries. It explores how failures occur (stress versus strength), and how to model and measure reliability and safety using tools such as probability, histograms, fault trees, reliability block diagrams and Markov models. Furthermore, it examines how diagnostics, common-cause failures and software faults impact system performance.

This book guides readers through practical tools, including failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) and failure modes, effects and diagnostic analysis (FMEDA), as well as software reliability models and lifecycle costing. It balances theory with real-world examples, demonstrating how to build effective models, compare architectures and estimate the financial impact of design choices.

Overall, it serves as a practical reference for students and practitioners aiming to understand and evaluate control system safety quantitatively.

Dr. William M. Goble has more than 30 years of experience in analog and digital electronic circuit design, software development, engineering management and marketing. He is currently a founding member and Principal Partner with exida, a knowledge company focused on automation safety and reliability.
He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Penn State and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Villanova. He has a Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Reliability at Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and has done research in methods of modeling the safety and reliability of automation systems. He is a Professional Engineer in the state of Pennsylvania and holds a Certified Functional Safety Expert certificate.
He is a well-known speaker and consultant and also develops and teaches courses on various reliability and safety engineering topics. He has written several books and has authored or co-authored many technical papers and magazine articles, primarily on software and hardware safety and reliability, and on quality improvement and quantitative modeling.
He is a Fellow Member of the International Society of Automation (ISA) and is a member of IEEE, AIChE, and several international standards committees.