Jury evaluation of design safety

This paper proposes a fuzzy set theoretic procedure for evaluating the degree of safety of a design. One may apply the procedure to a component or system during preliminary design or during service life. The procedure is initiated by a safety engineering judge who devises a set of hierarchical rules or instructions which, if met, assure safe performance. A safety engineering jury then considers and renders a verdict regarding the truth of each rule and the truth of the conclusion that the component or system is safe.