Abstract
Software-controlled fire detecting installations are of increasingly gowing importance and attraction. The paper discusses the advantages as the main reasons for this fact. In addition it gives an indication of the problems to be solved and the inherent failure sourcses. The main applicable design rules are derived from the principle that failure sources have to be avoided and where they are unavoidable their effects have to be minimized. The basic design approaches are discussed in this context. It is mentioned that in practice a combination of several aspects has to be applied for several reasons. Testing is necessary on the different levels of the design, development and application process. The contribution discusses the possible test philosophies for type testing in some detail and mentions a special test procedure for software-controlled fire detection systems which has been discussed in the European community and which is a compromize between a rigorous functional (dynamic) testing and a documentation check. It is likely to give suitable over-all indication of the system quality, it checks several key specifications and it keeps the testing expenses at an acceptable level.
It is shown that black-box testing is not possible.
© 1987 Center for Fire Science and Technology, Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
