Functional safety
8.3 Safety Integrity Level (SIL)
SIPART PS2 with and without HART
Operating Instructions, 10/2013, A5E00074631-11
143
Safety Integrity Level (SIL)
The international standard IEC 61508 defines four discrete Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) from
SIL 1 to SIL 4. Every level corresponds to a probability range for the failure of a safety
function.
The following table shows the dependency of the SIL on the "average probability of
dangerous failures of a safety function of the entire safety-instrumented system" (PFD
AVG
).
The table deals with "Low demand mode", i.e. the safety function is required a maximum of
once per year on average.
Table 8- 1 Safety Integrity Level
-5
AVG
-4
-4
-3
-3
AVG
-2
-2
-1
The "average probability of dangerous failures of the entire safety-instrumented system"
(PFD
AVG
) is normally split between the following three components:
Figure 8-2 PFD distribution
The following table shows the achievable Safety Integrity Level (SIL) for the entire safety-
instrumented system for type A devices depending on the safe failure fraction (SFF) and the
hardware fault tolerance (HFT).
● Type A devices include analog transmitters and shut-off valves
complex
components, e.g. microprocessors (see also IEC 61508, Section 2).
● The specific values for your device are listed in the manufacturer's declaration
(Declaration of Conformity, Functional Safety according to IEC 61508 and IEC 61511):
Certificates (http://www.siemens.com/processinstrumentation/certificates
).