Industrial Automation Diploma

Report (2)
Spurious Trip Concept

Prepared by:
Eng.\ Ahmed Azab Ahmed Atef
Course:
Safety Instrumentation and Emergency Shutdown Systems for
Process Industries Using IEC 61511 and IEC 61508

Submitted for evaluation by:

Eng.\ Mohsen Fawzy

1- Brief Introduction
Spurious Trip Level (STL) is defined as a discrete level for specifying the
spurious trip requirements of safety functions to be allocated to safety systems. An
STL of 1 means that this safety function has the highest level of spurious trips. The
higher the STL level the lower the number of spurious trips caused by the safety
system. There is no limit to the number of spurious trip levels.
Safety functions and systems are installed to protect people, the environment
and for asset protection. A safety function should only activate when a dangerous
situation occurs. A safety function that activates without the presence of a
dangerous situation (e.g., due to an internal failure) causes economic loss. The
spurious trip level concept represents the probability that safety function causes a
spurious (unscheduled) trip.
For end-users there is always a potential conflict between the cost of safety
solutions and the loss of profitability caused by spurious trips of these safety
solutions. The STL concept helps the end-users to end this conflict in a way that
safety solutions provide both the desired safety and the desired process availability.

2- STL Determination
The spurious trip level represents asset loss due to an internal failure of the
safety function. The more financial damage the safety function can cause due to a
spurious trip the higher the STL level of the safety function should be. Each
company needs to decide for themselves which level of financial loss they can or
are willing to take. This actually depends on many different factors, like the
financial situation of the company, the insurance policy, the cost of process
shutdown and startup, and so on. All these factors are unique to each company. The
table below shows an example of how a company can calibrate its spurious trip
levels.

Description

STL
6

Spurious trip costs between 10M and 20M EUR

Spurious trip costs between 10M and 20M EUR

Spurious trip costs between 5M and 10M EUR

Spurious trip costs between 1M and 5M EUR

Spurious trip costs between 500k and 1M EUR

Spurious trip costs between 100k and 500k EUR

None Spurious trip costs between 0 and 100k EUR

3- STL Levels
The STL level achieved by a safety function is determined by the probability of
fail-safe (PFS) of this safety function. The PFS value is determined by internal
failures of the safety system that cause the safety function to be executed without a
demand from the process. Probability of Failure Spurious (PFS) is the probability of
failure due to the spurious trip. The smaller this value, the more available the
system is. The table below demonstrates the PFS value and spurious trip reduction
values of each STL level.
1

102 to <101

103 to <102

105 to <104

10-(X+1) to <10-X

STL level
PFSavg

4- STL vs SIL (Higher Risk of Spurious Trip Comment)

Today

standards

only

define

the

safety

integrity

level

(SIL)

for

safety

functions. Standards do not define STL levels because they do in first instance not
represent safety but economic loss. Despite this the STL is also a safety attribute,
especially for safety functions in the process, oil & gas, chemical and nuclear
industry. In those industries an undesired shutdown of the process leads to
dangerous situation as the plant needs to be started up again. Startup and shutdown
of a process plant are considered the two most dangerous operational modes of
the plant and should be limited to the absolute minimum.
2

In practice the STL and SIL concepts complement each other. Both factors are
attributes of the same safety function. The STL level is determined by the average
PFS value of the safety function. The SIL level is determined by the average
probability of failure on demand. PFD value of the safety function. The STL level
expresses the probability of spurious trips by the safety function, i.e., the safety
function is executed without a demand from the process. The SIL level expresses
the probability that the safety function does not work upon demand from the
process. Both parameters are important to end-users in order to achieve safety and
asset protection.

SIL

STL

Consequences for

People, Environment, Assets

Production Loss, Down Time

Measure for

Safety Availability

Process Availability

Levels

1,2,3,4

Unlimited levels

High level means:

Process is more protected

Process is more available

Risk based:

Yes

Yes

Property

Therefore, Industry data report that when a process unit experiences a high
number of spurious alarms, the operators become ambivalent and are likely to
respond slowly or not at all to a critical real alarm. This means that spurious
trip is not only expensive, but also in most cases can be considered as
dangerous too. The standard IEC 61508 has no requirement related to spurious
activations, while IEC 61511 requires that a maximum STR is specified, but the
standard does not provide how the rate should be estimated

5- Conclusions
It can be concluded that :
1- The spurious trip level represents asset loss due to an internal failure of the
safety function.
2- Probability of Failure Spurious (PFS) is the probability of failure due to the
spurious trip. The smaller this value, the more available the system is.
3- With high number of spurious alarms, the operators become ambivalent and
are likely to respond slowly or not at all to a critical real alarm. This means
that spurious trip is not only expensive, but also in most cases can be
considered as dangerous too.
4- Startup and shutdown - caused by spurious trip - of a process plant are
considered the two most dangerous operational modes of the plant and should
be limited to the absolute minimum.

6- References
1-G. Gabor and D. Zmaranda, Techniques used to design safe and reliable critical
control or shutdown systems, Journal of Computer Science and Control Systems,
01/2008.
2-Website: http://www.oilfieldwiki.com/wiki/Spurious_trip_level.
3-N.T.

DANG

PHAM,

MICHAEL

SCHWARZ,

and

JOSEF

BRCSK,

Evaluation of Spurious Trip Rate of SIS dependent on demand rate, University of

Kassel Wilhelmshher Allee 71, 34121 Kassel GERMANY.