Safety and Security beyond Industry 4.0

As open standards like OPC UA were introduced to facilitate the interoperability of devices, safety and security standards were only gradually incorporated into Industry 4.0 designs. Hence, safety and security issues have eventually emerged with the growing complexity of such systems, and they need to expand outside of their premises to be integrated into larger set-ups. Typical examples thereof are power grids, whose dependability was guarded for long times by strict rules and restrictive communication protocols. Once they were exposed on the Internet, however, their vulnerability has increased to a point where their safety could be compromised. Hence, there is an urgent need to implement effective safety and security mechanisms into OPC UA to provide systems with appropriate levels of functional safety as well as data security. With increasing levels of integration, e.g. with Industry 5.0, these standards need to evolve to provide for sustainability in a globally interconnected world.

Propulsion performances study for a chemical tank

The design of a propulsion system for each ship must take into consideration a large number of factors. Some important factors that will lead to obtaining an efficient propulsion system are: the integration of a large number of elements in a functional space, selection of suitable components, the efficiency assessment taking into account functional safety and comfort criteria for crew and passengers. Considering the factors listed above, the analysis and design of the propulsion system for a chemical tank was performed. To choose the optimal components, the propulsion performance for this ship was analysed using 4 different engines. The operation of the propeller behind the ship has an effect on both the structure of the ship and the navigation conditions of the crew on board. Ttherefore, in the last part of the paper will be presented the effect of the operation of the propeller chosen for the chemical tank. In this sense, the surface forces induced by the propeller that appear in the stern vault will also be a center of interest in this work.

A Functional Safety Assessment Methodology for Explosion Protection with Application to a Variable Frequency Drive System

Modern explosion protection equipment, protected by traditional explosion protection technology (as defined by the international electrotechnical commission (IEC) publication IEC60079-ff series standards) and electrical/electronic/programmable electronic (E/E/PE) safety-related systems, is becoming ever more complex in coal mine development and petrochemical industry; thus, the possibility of failures in their operation is also growing. It is well-known that E/E/PE safety-related systems can be used to actively control dangerous sources, with real and expected levels of reliability, if they have been qualified according to the IEC61508-ff series standards. To uniformly evaluate the safety integrity level (SIL) of the explosion protection function of traditional explosion protection technology and E/E/PE safety-related system technology, this study analyzed the ability of these types of protection to remove the ignition risk residual, evaluating the failure rates of safety devices. The key objective of this paper is the presentation of a new equipment protection level (EPL) assessment method for explosion protection equipment based on a functional safety assessment. The method is applied to a variable frequency drive (VFD) system, and the results show that the EPL of the explosion protection equipment evaluated by this method is consistent with the EPL corresponding to the traditional explosion protection type of the IEC60079-ff series standard. Meanwhile, the flexible configuration of explosion protection safety devices and E/E/PE safety-related systems enables explosion protection equipment of different EPL levels to be designed.