Function (engineering)
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In engineering, a function is an action or task that a system is designed to perform.[1]
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[edit] Engineering design
In the lifecycle of engineering projects, there are usually distinguished subsequently: Requirements and Functional specification documents. The Requirements usually specifies the goal attributes of the requested system, and "The Functional Specification defines what the functionality will be, but not how that functionality will be implemented. "( Functional Specification from the EPRI Institute Portal), and the next Design Specification document describes physical or software processes and systems which realize (are carriers of) the requested functions.
There are distinguished internal and external system functions. From an external observer perspective, the services offered by an engineering system to its users are the system external functions. The functions which are necessary for their realization are called system internal functions.
From the systemic perspective, functions are divided according to the main goals of engineering systems (Morten Lind), they are:
- production functions ,
- safety functions
- economic functions.
This taxonomy was applied in Multilevel Flow Modeling (MFM) for the graphical representation of goals and functions of complex nuclear plants.
[edit] References
- ^ Dahlberg, Sten (1998). INCOSE SE Terms Glossary. INCOSE. http://www.incose.org/ProductsPubs/pdf/techdata/ERTC/GlossaryDefnsOfTerms_1998-10_TWG.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-01-08.
[edit] Further reading
- M. Lind, Multilevel Flow Modeling,in the Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Functional Modeling of Complex Technical Systems(ISBN 0-9652669-0-7), 1993.
- R.Barker, C. Longman, Case*Method: Function and Process Modelling, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1992.
