Design of a Validator for Module Type Packages

Abstract

Modular plants build a production system by integrating a set of pre-designed modules. Integration of these modules, supplied by different vendors, is performed using various design tools during the engineering phase. The integration process must perform a rigorous validation of the correctness of a module specification (MTP). Otherwise, the integration process can fail without providing enough failure details. Consequently, Such a failure at the later stage can significantly impact implementation, testing, integration, and SAT. In this paper, we describe a validator tool, that allows a plant designer to define a set of invariants that must be satisfied so that an MTP can be deemed fit for integration. We have tested the validator on a set of MTPs and reported our findings. We expect that the use of such a validator can significantly reduce the possibility of introducing errors during the engineering phase.