Functional Design Specifications

Image of FDS.

The functional design specifications, shortened to FDS, describe in detail the control concept of a process plant. They list the conditions that must be fulfilled to start up the plant, as well as the conditions to stop it. The behaviour of every single component must be defined for all possible operating states and process conditions. The FDS must be logically consistent such that no contradictory behaviour of components is possible.

In conjunction with the FDS, the graphical user interface is usually created on which the process values of the plant are continuously visualized and which is used by the operators of the plant to interact with the process control system.

Based on the FDS, the process control system will eventually be programmed.