A questão da segurança funcional das indústrias de processos vem recebendo uma atenção crescente pela comunidade científica mundial, uma vez que se observa a possibilidade de ocorrências de acidentes e as consequências indesejadas que estes acidentes têm provocado. Essas indústrias podem ser consideradas como parte de uma classe de sistemas denominados Sistemas Críticos, que são caracterizados pela possibilidade de ocorrência de falhas críticas, que resultam em acidentes com perdas de vidas humanas, danos ao meio ambiente e perdas financeiras envolvendo custos significativos de equipamentos e propriedades. Estes fatos justificam a necessidade de uma nova abordagem no que se refere ao design de processos, design de controle de processos, análise e controle de riscos e avaliação de riscos. Um dos desafios pertinentes à segurança funcional está associado a como vincular os cenários de acidentes aos requisitos para projetos de sistemas de controle relacionados à segurança das indústrias de processos de forma sistemática. Por sua vez, a possibilidade de ocorrência de eventos críticos e/ou eventos indesejados não observados ou ocultos, como fatores relevantes associados à evolução da sequência de eventos que culmina na ocorrência de um acidente. Neste contexto, o desafio está em aprimorar a eficácia destes sistemas de controle, que envolve o desenvolvimento de uma solução capaz de supervisionar o processo de evolução de falhas críticas, a fim de se garantir um nível de segurança funcional adequado e que esteja em conformidade com as normas internacionais aplicáveis IEC 61508 e IEC 61511. Portanto, estas considerações trazem novos requisitos para o projeto de sistemas de controle desta natureza, capaz de englobar modelos de acidentes e processos de evolução de falhas críticas. Uma solução é a consideração das abordagens de prevenção e mitigação de falhas críticas de forma integrada e interativa. Além disso é necessário abordar novas técnicas e conceitos para que se possa desenvolver um sistema de controle capaz de rastrear e atuar nos processos de evolução de falhas desta natureza. Uma possibilidade consiste em considerar o princípio de defesa em profundidade aliado à propriedade de diagnosticabilidade segura. O atendimento a este novo conjunto de requisitos não é trivial e se faz necessário integrar diferentes formalismos para o desenvolvimento de soluções adequadas. Portanto, este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para o projeto de um sistema de controle baseado no conceito de segurança funcional para indústrias de processos, e que propõe: (i) uma arquitetura de controle para prevenção e mitigação de falhas críticas, (ii) extensão da classificação de barreiras de segurança focando na automação via sistemas instrumentados de segurança (SIS) (iii) framework para a síntese de sistemas de controle relacionados à segurança baseado em modelos de acidentes e que contempla os seguintes métodos: (a) elaboração do HAZOP, (b) construção de modelos de acidentes, (c) integração dos modelos de acidentes com o HAZOP e (d) geração dos algoritmos de defesa para a prevenção e mitigação de falhas críticas, a partir de técnicas de modelagem usando extensões da rede de Petri: Production Flow Schema (PFS) e Mark Flow Graph (MFG). A metodologia proposta foi verificada, a partir de exemplos de aplicação investigados na literatura. / The issue of the functional safety of process industries has been receiving increasing attention from the world scientific community, since it has stated the possibility of occurrences of the accidents and the related undesired consequences. These industries can be considered as part of a system class called critical systems, which are characterized by the occurrence of critical faults, which can result in accidents involving loss of life, damage to the environment, and financial losses involving equipment and property. These facts justify the need for a new approach that addresses: process design, process control design, risk analysis and control, and risk assessment. One of the challenges related to functional safety is associated with how to integrate accident scenarios to the requirements for the design of safety-related control systems of the process industries in a systematic way. Furthermore, there is the possibility of the occurrence of the unobserved or hidden undesired and / or critical events, as relevant factors associated to the evolution of the sequence of the events that corroborates in the occurrence of an accident. In this context, the challenge is to improve the effectiveness of these control systems, which involves the development of a solution capable of supervising the process of evolution of the critical and / or undesired events, in order to guarantee an adequate level of functional safety, and that complies with the applicable international standards IEC 61508 and IEC 61511. Therefore, these considerations bring new requirements for the design of control systems of this nature, capable of encompassing the accident models and the critical fault evolution processes. One solution is to consider critical fault prevention and mitigation approaches in an integrated and interactive way. In addition, it is necessary to addresses new techniques and concepts in order to develop a control system capable of tracking and acting in the evolution processes of faults of this nature. One possibility is to consider the principle of defense-in-depth coupled with the property of safe diagnosability. The fulfillment of this new set of requirements is not trivial and it is necessary to integrate different formalisms for the development of adequate solutions. Therefore, this work presents a methodology for the design of a safety-related control systems based on the concept of functional safety for the process industries, which proposes: (i) a control architecture for the prevention and mitigation of the critical faults, (ii) an extension of the classification of the safety barriers focusing on automation via safety instrumented system (SIS), (iii) a framework for the synthesis of the safety-related control systems based on accident models and which includes the following methods: (a) elaboration of the HAZOP study, (b) construction of the accident models, (c) integration of the accident models with the HAZOP study, and (d) generation of the defense algorithms for the prevention and mitigation of the critical faults, via modeling techniques using extensions of the Petri net: Production Flow Schema (PFS) and Mark Flow Graph (MFG). The proposed methodology was verified, from application examples investigated in the literature.

Le travail présenté dans ce mémoire concerne une méthode de conception sûre de systèmes(COTS). Un COTS est un composant matériel ou logiciel générique qui est naturellement conçu pour être réutilisable et cela se traduit par une forme de flexibilité dans la mise en oeuvre de sa fonctionnalité : en clair, une même fonction peut être réalisée par un ensemble (potentiellement infini) de scénarios différents, tous réalisables par le COTS. La complexité grandissante des fonctions implémentées fait que ces situations sont très difficiles à anticiper d’une part, et encore plus difficiles à éviter par un codage correct. Réaliser manuellement une fonction composite correcte sur un système de taille industrielle, s’avère être très coûteuse. Elle nécessite une connaissance approfondie du comportement des COTS assemblés. Or cette connaissance est souvent manquante, vu qu’il s’agit de composants acquis, ou développés par un tiers, et dont la documentation porte sur la description de leur fonction et non sur sa mise en IJuvre. Par ailleurs, il arrive souvent que la correction manuelle d’une faute engendre une ou plusieurs autres fautes, provoquant un cercle vicieux difficile à maîtriser. En plus, le fait de modifier le code d’un composant diminue l’avantage lié à sa réutilisation. C’est dans ce contexte que nous proposons l’utilisation de la technique de synthèse du contrôleur discret (SCD) pour générer automatiquement du code de contrôle commande correct par construction. Cette technique produit des composants, nommés contrôleurs, qui agissent en contraignant le comportement d’un (ou d’un assemblage de) COTS afin de garantir si possible la satisfaction d’une exigence fonctionnelle. La méthode que nous proposons possède plusieurs étapes de conception. La première étape concerne la formalisation des COTS et des propriété de sûreté et de vivacité (P) en modèles automate à états et/ou en logique temporelle. L’étape suivante concerne la vérification formelle du modèle d’un(des) COTS pour l’ensemble des propriétés (P). Cette étape découvrir les états de violation des propriétés (P) appelés états d’erreur. La troisième étape concerne la correction automatique des erreurs détectées en utilisant la technique SCD. Dans cette étape génère on génère un composant correcteur qui sera assemblé au(x) COTS original(aux) pour que leur comportement général respecte les propriétés souhaitées. L’étape suivante concerne la vérification du système contrôlé pour un ensemble de propriétés de vivacité pour assurer la passivité du contrôleur et la vivacité du système. En fin, une étape de simulation est proposée pour observer le comportement du système pour quelque scénarios intéressent par rapport à son implémentation finale. / This PhD dissertation contributes to the safe design of COTS-based control-command embedded systems. Due to design constraints bounding delays, costs and engineering resources, component re-usability has become a key issue in embedded design. Our proposal is a design method which ensures correction of COTS-based designs. This method uses in synergy a number of design techniques and tools. It starts from modeling of the COTS components which are stored in a generic COTS library, and ends with a design of the global control-command system, verified to be free of errors and ready to be implemented over a hardware chip such as an ASIC or an FPGA "Field Programmable Gate Array". The designer starts by modeling the temporal and logical local preconditions and postconditions of each COTS component, then the global pre/post conditions of the assembly which are not necessary a simple combination of local properties. He models also a list of properties that must be satisfied by the assembly. Any violation of these properties is defined as a design error. Then, by using the model checking approach the model of the assembly is verified against the predefined local and global properties. Some design errors can be corrected automatically through the Discrete Controller Synthesis method (DCS), others however must be manually corrected. After the correction step, the controlled control-command system is verified. Finally a global simulation step is proposed in order to perform a system-level verification beyond the capabilities of available formal tools. We apply the method on two different systems, one concerns transferring data from senders to receivers through FIFO unit, the other is controlcommand system of a train passengers’ access.

Parmi les nombreuses applications des sources laser, certaines nécessitent une propagation du faisceau dans l'atmosphère sur plusieurs kilomètres : télémétrie, désignation, ou encore imagerie active. Pour éviter tout risque oculaire tout en proposant de plus grandes portées, ces applications doivent faire appel à des sources laser émettant une longueur d'onde dans la gamme à sécurité oculaire autour d'un minimum local d'absorption de l'atmosphère (1550-1650 nm). De telles sources existent déjà commercialement, mais ne répondent pas aux exigences militaires de compacité, de consommation électrique, de performance et de fonctionnement sur une large gamme de température (-40°C/+60°C).Mes travaux de thèse tentent d'apporter une réponse à l'ensemble de ces exigences. Avec l'aide des partenaires industriels Fibercryst et Cilas, ils portent sur la réalisation de sources laser compactes et efficaces à fibre cristalline Er3+:YAG directement pompée par une diode laser pour des applications militaires.A l'aide d'un algorithme de simulation d'un laser Er3+:YAG déclenché passivement élaboré et affiné durant la thèse, plusieurs sources sont réalisées expérimentalement. L'étude autour des absorbants saturables pour le déclenchement passif a permis une amélioration notable des caractéristiques du faisceau.Ces recherches, dont les résultats peuvent déjà présenter un certain intérêt commercial, ouvrent la voie vers de nouvelles techniques et architectures autour des sources laser à cristaux dopés aux ions erbium pour la conception de futurs prototypes plus performants. / Among the several applications of laser sources, some requires kilometers range propagation in the atmosphere : telemetry, guidance system or active imagery. High pulse energy improves the range of the system, but may cause permanent blindness to an observer's eyes. Hence, these applications must use laser beam which wavelength are located in the eye-safe region, ideally at the local minimum of the atmosphere absorption (1550-1650 nm). Such laser sources are already commercially available, but are not suited for the demanding military needs : compacity, electrical consumption, performance and large operating temperature range (-40°C/+60°C).My work aims to develop a laser source filling these specifications. Thanks to the collaboration with the industrial partners Fibercryst and Cilas, it focuses on the design of a compact, efficient, directly diode-pumped Er3+:YAG single cristal fiber laser for military applications.With a homemade numerical simulation of a passively Q-switched Er3+:YAG laser source, many laser emitters are experimentally designed and compared. Further studies around saturable absorbers allowed sensible improvements of the output pulse energy.This work, whose results may already be commercially interesting, may lead to new technics and architectures of erbium doped solid-state laser for better prototypes.

<div>Due to recent advances in sensor technology and the exponential increase in computation power of electronic control units (ECUs) along with their increasing affordability, active safety and vehicle automation have become major trends in the commercial vehicle industry. New regulations for increased safety are also a major driver behind the industry's increased interest in that topic. As a result, being a crucial part of vehicle automation, steering systems had to be adapted to enable Active Steering. Consequently, commercial vehicle steering designers introduced the concept of torque and angle overlay using an electric motor in series with the conventional hydraulic steering system. However, despite the fact that these systems are becoming more prevalent in the market, they still suffer from inefficiencies intrinsic to the conventional hydraulic steering system still being used. These inefficiencies are a result of</div><div>flow metering losses due to the use of control valves to regulate the pump flow output, as well as inside the steering gear with the use control valves to build assistance pressure.</div><div><br></div><div><div>In this research project, we investigate the potential use of the proven pump Displacement Control (DC) technology in steering on-highway commercial vehicles. DC pumps have been shown to signicantly improve system efficiency as they allow the removal of control valves typically used to regulate </div><div>ow [1]. Instead, the displacement of the pump can be directly controlled to vary the pump's flow rate and direction,</div><div>and thus eliminating throttling losses. The DC technology has been successfully used in a steer-by-wire conguration for an articulated frame steering vehicle and has been shown to signicantly improve efficiency and productivity, as well as result in a reduction in fuel consumption [2].</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>In this work, we propose a steer-by-wire system, using DC pump technology, for on-highway commercial vehicles, and present the dierent possible congurations in which it can be implemented. Moreover, the benets and drawbacks of the steer-by-wire system are researched and identied. Subsequently, the system is designed and validated in simulation, on laboratory test setup, as well as on a test vehicle to prove its feasibility.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>Chief among the drawbacks of the steer-by-wire system is potential failures that can lead to the complete loss of the steering function of the vehicle. As a result, different possible fail-safe mechanisms are researched from which the most suitable ones are proposed to allow the steer-by-wire system to fail safely. Moreover, two of the proposed fail-safe mechanism are implemented onto the test vehicle to prove and validate their feasibility.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>Furthermore, an alternative way of using displacement controlled pumps for active steering is be proposed. For this concept, we investigate the possibility of actively controlling the driver's steering effort by varying the pump displacement while maintaining the mechanical link between the steering wheel and the road wheels. If successful, this method will allow for a more efficient way of providing steering assistance as it does away with the conventional control valves used to build pressure and regulate pump flow, and thus eliminating throttling losses. This method has also the advantage of having an intrinsic fail-safe mechanism with manual steering being always possible should the hydraulic or electric systems fail.</div></div>

Process plants that produce chemical products through pre-designed processes are fundamental in the Chemical Engineering industry. The safety of hazardous processing plants is of paramount importance as an accident could cause major damage to property and/or injury to people. HAZID is a computer system that helps designers and operators of process plants to identify potential design and operation problems given a process plant design. However, there are issues that need to be addressed before such a system will be accepted for common use. This research project considers how to improve the usability and acceptability of such a system by developing tools to test the developed models in order for the users to gain confidence in HAZID s output as HAZID is a model based system with a library of equipment models. The research also investigates the development of computer-aided safety applications and how they can be integrated together to extend HAZID to support different kinds of safety-related reasoning tasks. Three computer-aided tools and one reasoning system have been developed from this project. The first is called Model Test Bed, which is to test the correctness of models that have been built. The second is called Safe Isolation Tool, which is to define isolation boundary and identify potential hazards for isolation work. The third is an Instrument Checker, which lists all the instruments and their connections with process items in a process plant for the engineers to consider whether the instrument and its loop provide safeguards to the equipment during the hazard identification procedure. The fourth is a cause-effect analysis system that can automatically generate cause-effect tables for the control engineers to consider the safety design of the control of a plant as the table shows process events and corresponding process responses designed by the control engineer. The thesis provides a full description of the above four tools and how they are integrated into the HAZID system to perform control safety analysis and hazard identification in process plants.

Falls with or without injuries among the elderly have become a public health concern, with falls among adults age 65 years and older increasing every year. Nurses play a role in ensuring patient safety by following fall prevention guidelines. The purpose of this evidence-based study was to implement the RE-AIM evaluation tool to determine the impact of the Safe Five program on staff compliance with the program; patients' awareness of the need for falls prevention; and falls among older adults, ages 65 years and older, admitted to an acute care nursing unit. The literature supports implementing a falls prevention program with multifactorial and interdisciplinary components, and an evaluation plan to help decrease falls in acute care settings. The Safe Five falls prevention program was implemented on the acute care nursing unit in an effort to decrease the inpatient falls rate on the unit. The inpatient falls data were collected retrospectively, 2 years pre implementation of the Safe Five program, and 8 to 10 months post implementation. Data were collected from the Safe Five checklists, recorded inpatient fall rates, and high fall risk chart audits provided by staff and nurse manager; they were then analyzed using the RE-AIM evaluation tool. The long-term effects of the Safe Five program include an 18% increase in patients' awareness of the importance of preventing falls, an 18% increase in staff compliance with the program, and a 14% decrease in inpatient fall rate on the unit. It is projected that the decrease in inpatient falls will result in decreased healthcare costs and improved patient satisfaction with the healthcare system, communication among the interdisciplinary team, and health outcomes for the patients.

This master thesis was performed in collaboration with Scania Ferruform in Luleå, with the purpose to create an efficient, rational and safe workplace at the unloading station of the crossmember painting line. The mission from Ferruform was to investigate and analyse flaws, risk, and bottlenecks with regards to flows, ergonomics and material handling. The project aimed to create a vision that could guide present and future development, followed by an implementation strategy consisting of concrete measures of both layout and organisational character. The vision is: “Create a work situation that is rooted in Scania's production system and characterized by efficiency, rationality and safe working conditions, where committed individuals can be challenged and developed”   The research questions that has guided the project are: What problem is the basis for the ergonomic situation at the crossmember painting? How can an efficient and rational workplace be created at crossmember painting? What does Ferruform need to do to create a safe and sustainable work environment at the crossmember painting?   The first step was to map the current state and identify problems with regards to process and organisation. This was done by using participative observation, interviews, user participation, overview analysis and Scania’s intranet. Apart from previous studies, the main problems that the mapping identified was consequences of frequent downtimes, shifts being isolated and having unique work methods, unsafe work environment, and finally that tools and aids for reducing harmful lifts are not used.  These problems and their consequences were analysed with regards to the current research in work science, behavioural science, and by using methods such as Fault tree analysis and proximity chart. One of the most important conclusions was that downtime, apart from compromised production volumes, affected the work situation negatively. Operators compensate for downtime by working faster and unsafe to reach the weekly production goals. Additionally, a middle manager role has disappeared in favour of meeting the production goals. This has severe consequences on the organisation of work and among others, ergonomics. The proximity chart showed that placement of functions in the production system is not based on logic, resulting in safety issues, intersecting flows and inefficient handling of materials. To counter the identified problems, three different layouts were developed and evaluated using the specification of requirements. The concept with highest score was further developed and detail designed. It is called “Wing” and separates humans and forklifts, has a centralized material buffer and redundancy for downtime. The concept allows for safer work environment, and efficient flows. The required changes are arranged in three steps, each with increasing capacity. The final concept together with the implementation plan, which present recommendations on how the final concept could gradually be implemented and what organisational changes that are needed, shows that productivity and rationality can coexist with a good work environment, where both humans and the production system can flourish.

The concept of a missing nursing care in a nursing practice is a phenomenon that could endanger patients' safety in all cultures. This global deficit of a superior and comprehensive nursing care occurs in various departments of healthcare facilities. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with problematic aspects of the concept of a missing nursing care based on theoretical findings. Furthemore it summarises strategies used for ensuring that quality, safety and kompetence in a nursing care is met in relation to latest findings and the legislation. The research part presents outcomes of a conducted qualitative survey research focusing on nurses working in an Intensive Care Unit where a nursing care is directed towards the population of adult patients. Research Metodology: The data collection in the study is based on a semi-structured interview conducted on an actively working group of nine Intensive Care Unit nurses. Aim of the Study: The main objective of the thesis is to describe and analyse problematic aspects of the concept of a missing nursing care in an Intensive Care Unit, as well as to identify factors that affect occurrence of the given concept limited to the nursing staff in the Intensive Care Units. Research Results: The study analyses six categories in total, of which five categories...

Transformational leadership (TL) has been found popular in many industries in the United States and abroad for the perceived transformational leaders' effectiveness in improving occupational safety. There is a lack of empirical evidence to confirm these claims for safe occupational driving. This phenomenological study attempted to fill this knowledge gap in the electric utility industry where employees must drive in all weather conditions to restore power to customers. The conceptual framework for the study was based on leadership and motivation theories of Burns and Maslow. The research questions explored the influence of (a) TL on safe driving performance improvement in organizations and (b) emotional intelligence (EI) on leaders' efficiency to improve safe driving performance in organizations. These questions were addressed using a 14-item in-depth, open-ended interview questionnaire by a convenience sample of 18 management and 12 union-represented personnel drawn from 5 U.S. electric utility companies using the snowball method. Data were analyzed using NVivo 10 software and were interpreted using the methodological framework of Leedy and Ormrod, and Maxwell. The findings suggested that (a) TL influenced safe driving performance through these leaders' idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation; and (b) EI ineffectively and unreliably influenced safe driving improvement, but it improved organizational trust through the leaders' empathy and drivers' empowerment. Individualized consideration, while acknowledged as desirable, was least important and was widely lacking. The implications for positive social change include promoting TL style in other industries, raising employees' commitment and contribution to safe driving performance improvement, and improving organizational trust as well as public safety.

Inom byggbranschen finns det problem med att personer kommer in på arbetsområdet där de kan komma till skada. Detta problem kallas problemet med tredje man på arbetsplats och byggföretagen jobbar idag på att hitta en lösning till detta. I examensarbetet ligger fokusen på att identifiera och kartlägga hur incidenterna går till och om det är möjligt att förebygga dessa. I rapporteringsdatabasen BIA har 1000 incidenter undersökts, kategoriserats och presenterats. Detta för att hitta samband och beteendemönster. Intervjuer har gjorts med branschaktiva och enkäter har skickats ut till insatta i ämnet för att inhämta kunskap och förståelse av problemet. De studerade incidenterna som undersökts kommer från Skanskas arbetsplatser. Incidenter som inträffat på andra ställen än Skanska Sverige undersöks inte. Studien undersöker inte om det är möjligt att förhindra skador på tredje man. Studien har visat att det finns vissa beteendemönster i hur och varför tredje man beträder arbetsplatser. Dessa beteendemönster kan delvis förklaras av hur och när folk tar sig till skolor och jobb. Studien visar också att i vissa fall har tredje man kommit in av misstag då avstängningar är otillräckliga. Material från intervjuer och enkäter stödjer också detta resultat. I dessa intervjuer och enkäter framgår också att det finns ett stort problem av bristande respekt hos tredje man vilket leder till aktiva beslut att beträda arbetsplatser. Slutsatsen som kan dras av examensarbetet är att problemet med tredje man på arbetsplatser är omfattande och det finns många orsaker till problemet. Det framgår också att problemet med tredje man existerar i betydande grad bland fotgängare, cyklister och bilister. Det som kan konstateras är att om problemet helt ska förhindras krävs åtgärder på många olika sätt, både för att stoppa de aktiva intrången och förhindra att personer kommer in av misstag eller missförstånd. / In the construction industry today, there is problems related to the public entering worksites where accidents might happen that also lead to injuries. This is called the problem with third person at worksites and today, companies do their best to find a solution for this. In this examination thesis the focus is to identify and map how these incidents occur, and if it is possible to prevent them. In the report database BIA, 1000 incidents has been studied, categorized and presented. This has been done to find similarities and behavioral patterns. To collect information and understanding about this issue, interviews and surveys has been done with people working in the construction industry. The incident reports that has been studied comes from Skanska’s worksites in Sweden. Incidents that has occurred at other work sites has not been studied. The study does not analyze if it is possible to avoid injuries to unauthorized people entering the work sites. The study shows there is signs of behavioral patterns concerning the public and how they end up within worksites. This can partly be explained in which time and way people travel between home and schools or work. The study also shows that in some cases third person has entered the worksite by mistake when fences and gates has been insufficient. The interview material and surveys also support this result. In these interviews and surveys it’s also apparent that there is a big issue concerning peoples lack of judgement, leading to decisions to enter construction sites. What can be summarized by this examination thesis is that the problem with unauthorized entry by third person at worksites is a major issue and there seems to be many causes to the problem. It also appears that the issue widely affects pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. What can be said about this is that if the problem is to be completely prevented, large effort needs to be applied in many ways, both to prevent active intrusion and to prevent people trespassing by accident.