A framework for the hazard analysis of chemical plants

We develop a framework supporting the formal hazard analysis of chemical plants. It provides generic specification modules for the description of safety properties, specification modules for the description of plant models, and theorems stating that certain subsystem structures of the plant model imply certain safety properties. Using the framework for hazard analysis, one first describes the plant and its control equipment as a composition of framework module instances. Then, one expresses the different safety properties of interest by parametrized framework modules. Finally, a safety property is proven when an appropriate theorem instance of the framework can be found. Thus, the framework facilitates the formal modeling. Moreover, the efforts for formal verifications are reduced drastically since framework theorem instances can replace explicit proofs. The framework utilizes modular temporal logic specifications supported by the specification language cTLA, and in particular is devoted to the compositional description of process systems.