Evaluating models for the inclusion in a safety assessment framework for efficient transport

Abstract

This paper presents the experiences from applying SysML models as support for establishing the safety requirements specification of a new safety-related railway application. The new railway application is a software-based system for securing work areas, meaning it prevents railway traffic in areas along the track allocated to maintenance. The experiences are collected within the Safety Assessment Framework for Efficient Transport (SafeT) project managed by Bane NOR. Bane NOR is the government agency that owns, operates and develops the Norwegian railway infrastructure. The objective of the SafeT framework is to offer a systematic, reusable way for creating system wide conceptual design models and based on them, creating a common risk model, which in turn will facilitate safety assessment, establishing the requirements specification, and safety demonstration of the system under consideration. The paper introduces the SafeT project as context of the work and presents experiences on the application of SysML for the conceptual system design of the new securing work areas application. The paper also discusses whether SysML models fit the SafeT framework’s objectives.