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The British Petroleum (BP) American Refinery accident, back in 2005, was one of the most severe explosions recorded in any industrial accident database. According to both the reconstruction and the interviews with the company, it was found that the causes of the accident where both technical, with the failure of a level controller, which was also badly designed for the isomerization unit, and human, with a very stressed and undersized personnel. In this work, a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) based on the Recursive Operability Analysis (ROA), as hazards and accidental scenarios identification tool, was performed on the unit (BP isomerization unit) involved in the accident. The analysis was carried out exploiting many different techniques, to provide a proper assessment. The quantification of all node-deviation-variables (necessary to establish the real behaviour of the system) was performed by implementing the BP plant in CoCo simulator. Basic events were identified using a simplified Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Then, the magnitude of fire and explosion was estimated basing on the simulation results provided by the ALOHA software. Finally, a Fault Tree Analysis for the BP isomerization unit was performed, quantifying the probability of occurrence of all the most credible scenarios. Probabilities, magnitudes, and risk indexes (function of the distance with respect to the source point) were also estimated. From the analysis, the importance of redundant measurements of the most crucial variables, such as liquid level, and the impact of human errors was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accidents involving accidental release of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can cause very serious damage to people and structures. Such as, for example, the derailment of a freight train carrying LPG, which occurred in Viareggio (Italy) on 29 June 2009 or the accident involving the fixed tank installed at the end user, which occurred in Gravedona (Italy) on 11 July 2019. The danger of LPG derives from its flammability and its tendency to form a dense cloud of vapour which is dispersed in atmosphere, even at a significant distance from the release, which if ignited can explode. In the present work, authors give indications for risk assessment of LPG release scenarios. The evaluation is obtained by combining the probability of the occurrence of the scenarios with the relative class of consequences of the dangerous phenomena (effects on the human target and effects on the environment target). The combination obtained through a risk matrix has the purpose of identifying the accident scenarios with the greatest impact. From matrix scenarios, we can deduce: - Phenomena with a low frequency and/or consequence that probably have no concrete effect on the damage; - Phenomena which will certainly lead to the development of real damage (these will have to be re-analysed in order to insert additional safety systems); -Phenomena of medium effect, which will probably have real effects on the damage and will be selected for further study. These scenarios for LPG depots, which fall under the activities at risk of major accident, are the basis of correct territorial planning and internal and external emergency planning; also consider the Italian Directive of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Civil Protection Department of 7 December 2022. (Guidelines for the preparation of the external emergency plan, guidelines for informing the population and guidelines for testing external emergency plans (Italian Official Gazette no. 31 of 7 February 2023)). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since June 2003 new and modified plants in Europe must comply with the requirements of the European Directive ATEX 137, aimed at improving the safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres. Of all possible sources of ignition that must be considered under this legislation, the ATEX Directive draws explicit attention to one: Static Electricity. Static is a common cause of fires and explosions, as it is present in a very wide range of industries, in some cases an inevitable outcome of the process being carried out. In others, unless specific measures have been taken, it may occur as a result of secondary actions such as movement of equipment and personnel. This paper shall firstly summarize the main characteristics of static electricity (charge generation, charge accumulation, types and modes of static discharges, such as sparks and propagating brush discharges). The paper shall then illustrate the methodology of an electrostatic risk assessment in a combustible dust environment, and the criteria to be adopted when assessing the effectiveness of the ignition. Lastly, the paper shall discuss prevention measures to reduce the electrostatic risk, such as solutions for avoiding charge generation and indications about proper grounding and bonding of conductive materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the large quantities of hazardous materials stored and processed, chemical and process plants may be attractive targets for security attacks (e.g. terrorist attacks) that can severely impact workers, the population, the surrounding environment, and property. According to well established Security Vulnerability Assessment (SVA) and Security Risk Assessment (SRA) methodologies, the shooting threat to a chemical and process facility shall be investigated; however, the development of adequate damage models in case of shooting attacks using small/light weapons to industrial equipment units is still lacking. In the present study, an extended set of perforation models was retrieved from the literature and was validated against experimental data from perforation tests. The most reliable perforation models for soft core projectiles were selected and used to assess the vulnerability to perforation of atmospheric tanks storing hazardous materials for two reference projectiles enabling the identification of inherent safety threshold values for perforation thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterioration due to the corrosion is the cause of undesired consequences in establishments at major accident hazard as it increases the potential for release of hazardous substances. If the damage mechanisms affecting the equipment are not properly managed, these could give severe impacts in terms of safety as well as business interruption. Risk assessment includes the analysis of scenarios due to the deterioration. Generic probabilities associated with this type of leakage are taken from public database and usually adapted to the industrial context by means of some modification factors. In any case probabilities suffer a major shortcoming that are nonspecific, therefore, there is the need to update them based on data collected inside the establishment for each specific equipment. In this work, a dynamic approach for the quantification of the probability of release is presented. Dynamism is here intended as a last-minute update that is following the occurrence of a change inside the establishment. The proposed approach is based on the use of a Fault Trees Analyses (FTA), which integrates additional branches accounting for equipment deterioration; then, the Bayes formula is used to update the generic probability connected to the deterioration by using incident and near-miss reports acquired in realtime. A case-study from a refinery shows the application of the approach and an updated probability of release, which account for the plant-specificity, is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and safety in the industry integrate procedures, techniques, and elements that can be applied to an organization to identify, evaluate, and control dangerous agents used in processes and activities. In addition, it is used to measure and propose actions for the prevention of incidents or health diseases. The main objective is to save the lives and health of the workers and avoid any possible damage to the company's actives. (Arellano y Rodríguez, 2013). For example, the Colombian company in the metal-mechanic sector studied counts with operational and administrative workers with a Risk Level of three (medium). The company supplies services for the oil sector, specifically in producing and maintaining steel pieces. The main risks in the company are work incidents, extern property damage, and professional diseases. In consequence, they have a goal to establish procedures for the health preservation of workers and improve corporate image and competitiveness. All the mentioned above is because their clients are essential Colombian companies like CASAVAL and ECOPETROL. Therefore, the main objective of the present research was to design the safety and health management system for an essential Colombian company in the metal-mechanic sector. The aim was to guarantee a healthy team worker with safe work conditions. For it, we used a four steps methodology: the first step consists of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, followed by the five forces diagram by Porter, then, we identified the intervention needs for risk prevention using the Colombian Technical Guide CTG 45 norm, and finally, the study established the control, following and evaluation measures for the management system. The workforce in the company develops their activities under constant noise, vibrations, low luminary, and the exposure of inorganic dust. Additionally, they have contact with shavings, solvents, metals, and daily they work in prolonged postures or make repetitive motions. Also, workers deal with decision-making processes and mental charges (Mancera, et al, 2018; Gracia, et al., 2018). According to the process developed in the company, the present work established different programs for monitoring different aspects: epidemiologic, wellness, auto care, and risk prevention. Furthermore, process, structure, and result indicators were developed to measure the efficiency of the safety management system. These indicators can also identify and execute corrective actions and continuous improvement strategies for no conformity found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial safety has been a topic of growing interest during the last decades, mainly because of the increased awareness and knowledge about safety issues. In this framework, the detailed reconstruction of the dynamics of an explosion (1 killed and 8 injured) occurred, on the 26th of June 1971, at Noury Italy (a plant dedicated to the production of chemicals for hardening plastics) is worth of interest and it could be used to improve actual safety guidelines related to the storage of peroxides. The accident happened before whatever Seveso Directive release. Therefore, root-causes reconstruction and related risk assessment were carried out making a comparison between a hypothetical plant layout at that time and a modern plant layout implemented with minimum safety systems, such as acoustic alarms and adequate bypass lines. The accident reconstruction was carried out by doing a deep literature research, mainly based on newspaper clippings of the time, to both remodel the accident at best and draw the most likely layout of the plant. The latter is of fundamental importance to carry out a risk assessment procedure by applying the Recursive Operability Analysis (ROA), which allows for a direct generation of the fault trees that can provide an easy estimation of the probability of occurrence of all unwanted events. This method was applied to the Noury Italy case study to show the criticalities of the storage equipment also underlining the possible improvements which could be implemented also in the '70s, therefore preventing the fatal explosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores two questions that can be answered by transforming major risk management systems into digital models. 1/A pragmatic question: How can we successfully integrate the regulatory requirements, risk assessment and safety management of a Seveso plant into a non-static picture, in order to reduce the gap between risk studies and the ever-changing reality of installations and practices? 2/An epistemological question: How can we ensure that this non-static picture is an intelligible and acceptable model (validity, veracity sufficient to make decisions)? The pragmatic question and the epistemological one are interlinked, as two sides of the same coin. They are born from a criticism of a certain bureaucracy which leads to be satisfied with a paper documentation of the control of the risks for the "administration", that is static in nature and does not necessarily represent a true picture of the ground truth of safety. This article presents the result of a work started in the TOSCA project (Total Operations Management for Safety Critical Activities), a European Project funded within the context of the 7th Framework Programme (see Leva et al. 2019, Anzirsi et al. 2019). This project aimed at developing an innovative approach able to integrate method and IT tool for improving risk management in the field of environmental and major hazard issues. Within this project, in 2013, INERIS started a case study with the Service National des Oléoducs Interalliés (SNOI). SNOI is responsible for the French part of the NATO pipeline network in Central Europe (CEPS), known as the Common Defense Pipeline (ODC). It thus operates a network of 2,300 km of pipelines and 14 SEVESO depots, including 7 classified as high threshold, for a total capacity of 500,000 m3 distributed among more than 80 buried tanks. Since 2013, INERIS and SNOI continued to work together, every day, to develop a method and a web tool dedicated to the combined management and assessment of major risk, where the data from daily monitoring can also be integrated alongside the requirements from the regulations and the required inspections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with pressurized releases of CO2 from Carbon Capture and Storage systems is of topical interest for the safety assessment of such infrastructures. Evidence shows that a sublimating bank of CO2 can be formed following a loss of containment, which acts as a delayed source of heavy CO2 gas. This source of hazard requires estimation in terms of sublimating mass flow rate, flux, and thermal features. In this work, we illustrate an experimental apparatus to measure the main properties of sublimating CO2 banks for estimating safety parameters. Data concerning mass flow rate, fluxes and temperature were successfully estimated. We measured mass fluxes in the range from 160 to 240 g/(min·m2) of CO2, and we observed a relevant temperature variation. From experimental data, we proposed an approach to evaluate a representative driving force that includes the central feature of the CO2 to accumulate in the vicinity of the sublimating bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bayesian network is an effective method for quantitative risk assessment, but most existing studies are either heavily data-dependent or excessively expert-dependent. In this paper, knowledge graph, complex network theory and Bayesian network are integrated into a KCB model for data-driven risk assessment, especially small data situations. By applying knowledge graph with natural language processing, a causation graph could be extracted and illustrated from accident reports. Some indexes from complex network theory are introduced to identify critical nodes to simplify the huge graph. Based on the simplified network, a Bayesian network is established to quantitatively demonstrate accidents from causes to consequences. Moreover, sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis are conducted to support the decision-making of safety management. In all, the expert involvement of Bayesian network can be reduced by applying the KCB model. Besides, the KCB model can be further applied to many other areas to reach uncertainty modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural hazards can cause severe damages to chemical and process facilities, triggering technological scenarios involving hazardous materials. The risk related to this type of cascading events, defined Natech accidents, is expected to grow in the foreseeable future due to the enhanced severity of some categories of natural phenomena brought by climate change. A critical feature of Natech events is that the safety systems implemented might undergo some extent of depletion and performance reduction due to the natural event, and this might heavily influence the likelihood and the features of accident escalation. While methodologies have been proposed to perform a quantitative assessment of Natech risk, the role of the safety system concurrent depletion has been only recently investigated and has not been addressed systematically yet. Hence, a comprehensive framework to assess the risk related to the escalation of Natech scenarios and to possible domino effects due to concurrent safety barrier depletion is presented. A specific three-level approach was conceived to evaluate barrier performance according to system complexity and impact uncertainty. A straightforward analysis (L0) based on a Boolean approach is applied for simple barriers when their missing action can be assessed with a low uncertainty. A more detailed analysis (L1) leveraging specific performance modification factors to express the likelihood that similar reference barriers will fail is applied in case of relevant uncertainty. For the analysis of complex barriers and situations when system architecture differs from reference configurations, a further level (L2) based on fault tree analysis is introduced to consider barrier subsystem failure during natural events and to update the overall unavailability of the system. A dedicated event tree approach is then used to embed barrier performance into the quantitative risk assessment of Natech scenarios. The methodology was applied to a test case demonstrating that the quantification of the updated performance of the considered set of safety barriers during natural hazards leads to a relevant increase in overall Natech risk figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between natural hazards and technological installations handling hazardous materials can produce complex cascading accidents termed as Natech events. Climate change and increasing vulnerability of industrial facilities caused a growing concern towards Natech hazards in recent years. Current methodologies addressing the identification and quantification of Natech scenarios mostly consider only the possibility of direct damage of process and storage equipment caused by natural hazards as earthquakes and floods. Nevertheless, recent severe Natech events as the Arkema accident (2017) demonstrated that the direct failure of equipment is not the sole possible accident trigger. Indeed, in these events the accident sequence was initiated by the impairment of auxiliary systems and utilities induced by the natural event. The present contribution proposes an innovative comprehensive framework to the identification of Natech scenarios and to the quantitative assessment of Natech risk. The new framework presented addresses the identification of both direct and indirect Natech scenarios and considers the possible failure of utilities in the evolution of the accident chain and in the escalation of accident consequences. Specific strategies for the identification of alternative routes leading to Natech events are suggested, considering loss of containment events caused either by the direct damage of equipment or by the failure of utilities or safety barriers. A test-case was defined to show the application of the framework. The results demonstrated the importance of the indirect route in determining the overall hazard due to Natech events when specific categories of hazardous substances are present on the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an approach to develop a risk monitoring tool for oil storage facilities. The suggested approach is derived from the existing dynamic risk analysis (DRA) methods and the digital twin concepts. One of the main challenges in practical applications of DRA methods is insufficient amount of relevant data, and it seems that digital twin models can overcome this challenge by offering increased availability of real-time data. It can be interesting to judge if their combination can provide the intended advantages with a structured and more holistic viewpoint. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how a representative systems engineering (SE) methodology may be used to facilitate the process of developing an improved risk monitoring tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative risk assessment is required by some regulations in specific situations, such as major risk evaluations. The bowtie method, which combines fault and event trees and includes safety barriers, is a valid quantitative method for analyzing industrial risks and a tool for decision-making and safety management. At present, accounting for uncertainties associated with reliability data is not necessarily mandatory in quantitative risk assessment. The quantitative method, as currently implemented, introduces uncertainties that are not addressed in the bowtie. Input data uncertainties linked to choosing values among different sources lead to variability in the results. The possibility method, presented in this article corrects this bias by considering all scenarios, without excluding those with a very low probability. For an industrial company, this specificity can allow to ensure the completeness and the robustness of its risk analysis. This study highlights the impact of uncertainties on the quantification of a bowtie. Besides obtaining a probability, it enables decision-makers to have access to the uncertainty related to the result. This information is essential to judge the trustworthiness of the analysis and to manage risks based on uncertainties. This study allows the development of an advanced bowtie method, by considering the uncertainties associated with the input data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of new regulations and sustainable technologies, revamping and upgrading already existing chemical plants is nowadays an important element in the framework of process engineering. Such important modifications must come along in parallel improvement of process safety. In this sense, risk assessment is a tool that should be versatile and easy to update by definition. However, even the most common methods currently used for accidental scenarios identification and risk assessment estimation (such as HazOp) may prove to be very time-consuming when discussing about safety from process modifications. The availability of a reliable and easy-to-update tool for safety engineering is crucial for process industries. In this work, we compare a risk analysis on a chemical plant subject of modifications performed with two different tools: HazOp and FTA vs Recursive Operability Analysis (ROA) and FTA. Both techniques have been applied to a tank dedicated to dust mixing that was subject of process modifications. Both methods come to the same conclusions, highlighting new failures and process criticalities, associated with the introduction of flow alarms and interlocks in case of excessive depressurizing. It is shown that the Recursive Operability Analysis, with its cause-consequence structure tied with process variable interactions, is much more effective in a risk assessment update. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety and prevention in workplaces are important issues, especially regards to risks with serious consequences for health and infrastructures, such as dust explosions, which have caused several industrial accidents during the last centuries and, actually, represent a critical issue in the industrial framework. The current European legislation, referred to as ATEX directive, identifies ATEX zones as parts of the plant where explosive atmospheres can be generated. In this work, a modified version of the classic Recursive Operability Analysis method, specifically tailored to define with an automatic procedure the ATEX zones related to flammable dust clouds, is proposed. The method is fast and effective, allowing for an automatic generation of fault trees from which the probability of occurrence defining the specific ATEX zone type can be estimated. This technique was successfully implemented in a chemical plant dedicated to the mixing of inert powders with a stearate powder, a hazardous dust classified as strongly explosible. The extent of all the ATEX zones identified within the plant was simulated with the ALOHA software, treating the dispersed dust cloud of stearate as a dense gas cloud. From the results, it was possible to identify not only type and extension of all the ATEX zones but also either the most critical parts of the plant or the most dangerous activities (e.g. human errors in the use of the forklift was found to account for about 97.7% to explosion probability in this type of plant). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic olfactometry is nowadays the most diffused technique to quantify odour emitted from industrial plants. The methodology, standardized by EN 13725:2003, involves human assessors, who are potentially exposed to hazardous pollutant present in odorous samples. A standardized method to evaluate the exposure risk for panellist during olfactometric analysis is not yet available. However, two different models to evaluate the occupation risk for panellists have been proposed within the scientific literature. Therefore, this paper reviews the available models and discusses their application to a real sample to estimate the occupation exposure risk for workers involved in olfactometric analyses. After a brief models' description, these are both applied to a real odour sample, highlighting the differences between them and the most critical aspects of applying the suggested procedures for the toxicological assessment of the exposure risk for panellists. This discussion highlights that the absence of a unique standardised assessment method and uniform reference concentrations can lead to significant differences in toxicological evaluations. In addition, the presence of compounds for which no toxicity threshold is available can cause an underestimation of the minimum dilution value to be adopted to protect the health of panellists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience gathered from normal industrial operations allows us to associate its degrading conditions with the potential for an accident. Such association is the basis for the definition of the system risk and appropriate safety measures. If a skilled operator observes further degrading conditions, his/her mind quickly learns from this new experience, derives an updated risk level, and tunes the safety measures. Similarly, safety management techniques aim to construct a risk model while learning from past and new observations with the purpose to warn of an imminent accident. However, the model can be tested only in hindsight, after the occurrence (or the missed occurrence) of an accident. How can we generalise and model the risk analysis learning process? How can we optimise its configuration towards new observations? This study discusses these issues of meta-learning for safety management by considering the case study of a drive-off scenario involving an oil and gas drilling rig, for which a risk assessment approach based on machine learning is developed. The results indicate the way forward for a generalisation of risk analysis learning processes and their optimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety critical environments -- e.g. chemical and nuclear plants, oil and gas installations, manufacturing sites - typically present a high degree of complexity, especially in relation to the many causal interactions between technical, human and organizational elements. Such a structure poses a challenge for industrial safety, since it often produces unpredictable system behaviours that can in turn cause abnormal workers' behaviours, with an increased risk of accidents that can have even catastrophic consequences. Human factors have a crucial role in such contexts and structured behavioural interventions can have a deep impact, but their application has to take into account some prerogatives of the specific context. The present study aims to provide a picture of how human factors impact on the safety of complex high-risk industrial sites and how the above-mentioned interactions can be modelled. Methodologies with which behavioural interventions can be re-formulated, in order to be effective in critical contexts, are outlined. In addition, attention is focused on the topic of the road transport of dangerous goods, whose critical issues still appear to be underestimated and not sufficiently regulated by European legislation. The usefulness of Resilience Engineering interventions, helping people manage complexity under pressure while aiming to reach a satisfactory safety level, is finally evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Flanders and by extension in the whole world, accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods occur. Therefore, Flanders is developing a risk analysis and assessment system for the external human risks of transporting dangerous goods. The general outline of the system has now been established, based on a number of external research projects. The system allows to obtain a profile of the risks of serious accidents with the transportation of dangerous goods on roads, railways, waterways, pipelines and in ports. In brief, the risk analysis system consists of the following major elements: dividing of the transport routes into segments, determining the probability of a major accident per segment, determining the damage per segment, determining the risks for each segment and determining the risks per route. The next step was the developing of a risk assessment system to be able to decide whether or not the risk of the transport of dangerous goods is acceptable, whether or not extra safety measures have to be taken and which of the alternative routes is the most favourable one for external safety. The system consists of two major steps. First, the risk per segment is studied and if necessary, the ALARP principle is applied. Second, the risk of the total route is calculated for all alternative routes and is compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk analysis in process systems is very important to design effective strategies for preventing and mitigating potential major accidents. Although conventional techniques as Bow-tie (BT) have widely been used in risk assessment of process systems, they fall short in effectively modelling epistemic uncertainty which is prevailing in risk assessment of process systems. The present study is aimed at alleviating this shortcoming by incorporating fuzzy set theory into BT, developing a so-called fuzzy extended Bow tie (FEBT) model. FEBT, compared with previous fuzzy BT methods, uses the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and thus provides a more accurate cause - consequence model of accident scenarios. A natural gas transmission network is used to demonstrate the application of FEBT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current methods of presenting data on risks are mainly focused on presenting the objective data such as accident statistics. However, research has shown that risks are not always understood objectively and quantitatively. User involvement showed that RIVM's current fact sheets could be improved. Fact sheets contain data for distinct types of accidents including statistics about the direct and underlying causes. The data is derived from the Dutch national Storybuilder database, which contains information on over 32,000 serious occupational accidents. This paper discusses how scientific insights into effective risk communication are applied to improve the fact sheets: a research to practice approach. Narrative accident descriptions were added to support the quantitative data with a story that is relevant to the target audience. The fact sheets are further extended with possible preventive measures users can undertake and visual support in the form of graphics. Future research will test different versions of the fact sheets with members of the target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malicious cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly prominent due to the advance of technology and attack methods over the last decade. These attacks have the potential to bring down critical infrastructures, such as nuclear power plants (NPP's), which are so vital to the country that their incapacitation would have debilitating effects on national security, public health, or safety. Despite the devastating effects a cyber-attack could have on NPP's, it is unclear how control room operations would be affected in such a situation. In this project, the authors are collaborating with NPP operators to discern the impact of cyber-attacks on control room operations and lay out a framework to better understand the control room operators' tasks and decision points. A cyber emulation of a digital control system was developed and coupled with a generic pressurized water reactor (GPWR) training simulator at Idaho National Laboratories. Licensed operators were asked to complete a series of scenarios on the simulator in which some of the scenarios were purposely obfuscated; that is, in which indicators were purposely displaying inaccurate information. Of interest is how this obfuscation impacts the ability to keep the plant safe and how it affects operators' perceptions of workload and performance. Results, conclusions and lessons learned from this pilot experiment will be discussed. This research sheds light onto about how cyber events impact plant operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a recent report by the Japanese government, about 40% of accidents in the chemical industrial complex are caused by human factors. At the same time, due to changes in the social structure, problems of retirement of a large number of mandatory retirements at the manufacturing site and technical inheritance due to a decrease in the labor force population have been pointed out. To convey accurately indication information of work in chemical plant, we need safety education systems to support operators/workers to follow correct operating procedures without human error. In this study, it is used a dynamic plant simulator instead of a real chemical plant to reproduce the behavior of the plant. Plant operators can use tablet PCs in the field or desktop PCs in the control room. The proposed system can display information on the tablet PCs that have been standardized to include various operational procedures under regular conditions as well as during emergencies. In addition, the field worker can control plant simulator from onsite using mobile small PCs. The plant information is stored in a database that can be accessed and used as needed. The field operators can communicate with the control room about ongoing situations using the camera included in the tablet PC. In many chemical plants, onsite workers cannot quantitatively know the degree of a valve opening, and in order to know whether the work they did was appropriate, they must contact the control room. To solve this inefficiency, in this system, the process value of the plant simulator is routed to the tablet PC. Under the present circumstances emergency training to prevent accidents at chemical plants is not enough although their importance is recognized. We expect that this system can be used for safety training/education using a real onsite work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seveso III Directive (2012/18/EU) requires operators to demonstrate that they have identified major accident hazards and scenarios, and that they have implemented adequate actions to prevent such accidents. Safety reports issued under the Seveso Directive specifically address accident scenarios caused by technical or human failures. Scenarios caused by intentional acts are usually not considered, even if they have a wide potential to harm the workers and the exposed population in the vicinity of Seveso sites. The present contribution focuses on the characterization of physical security-related scenarios in the framework of safety and security management of Seveso sites, identified taking advantages of the potential synergies between safety and security studies. The role of physical security barriers is explored. Finally, the use of protection distances from critical and vulnerable units is presented to support the selection of the barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all accidental releases of flammable gases and vapours create explosions; most releases do not find an ignition source and of those that do ignite, most of them generate low or moderate overpressure only (deflagrative combustion). However, when certain conditions are satisfied, deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) can occur followed by stable detonation. A detonation is a rare event; however, it is a worst-case accidental event. Overpressures in detonation are much higher compared to deflagration. In addition, detonation does not stop at the edge of the congestion, as in case of deflagrations, but detonation continues through the entire flammable cloud. Items within the detonating cloud are destroyed or rendered unusable. An intense vapour cloud explosion (VCE) occurred at the Buncefield fuel storage site in 2005. Extensive research into this incident revealed beyond doubt that detonation had taken place in the vapour cloud. Alternative mechanisms were considered and dismissed because they did not adequately explain the observed damage. Unique data were collected on the impact of blast on items of industrial plant, vegetation and vehicles. Combined with advances in fundamental knowledge of detonation science and large-scale tests on detonations, these new insights have allowed a comprehensive interpretation of the multitude of previous accidents involving intense vapour cloud explosions. The review identifies several past industrial accidents in which detonation was the cause of major destruction and loss of life. The new insight presented should help safety engineers to comprehend aspects of explosion hazards, to prepare and to optimise safety management procedures to minimise the detonation risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant gap exists between accident scenarios as foreseen by company safety management systems and actual scenarios observed in major accidents. Its mere existence, pointing at flawed risk assessments, is leaving hazards unmitigated, threatening worker safety, putting the environment at risk and endangering company continuity. Safety managers and regulators, attempting to reduce and eventually close this gap, not only encounter the pitfalls of poor safety studies, but also the acceptance of "unknown risk" as a phenomenon, companies being numbed by inadequate process safety indicators, unsettled debates between paradigms on improving process safety, and inflexible recording systems in a dynamic industrial environment. The immediacy of the stagnating long term downward major accident rate trend in the Netherlands underlines the need to address these pitfalls. The main conclusion is that safety management can never be ready with hazard identification and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium ion batteries represent a well established technology in a range of applications (laptops, mobile phones, etc.) but they are becoming key factors in many other areas were reliability and safety are of paramount importance (e.g. the space and automobile industries). However, a number of drawbacks still raise concerns about their wider use and hamper a more structured introduction in these additional applications. In particular, the management of heat effects remains a challenge, as an excessive temperature rise can cause reduction of cycle life, battery failures and, above all, may lead to thermal runaway of individual cells or of an entire battery pack, with associated damages to the surrounding people or environment. In the present paper, a simplified model capable of predicting the thermal behaviour of a battery pack refrigerated with a cooling fluid, is presented. It allows to quickly estimating the efficiency of a given cooling system under specific working conditions, and thus identify the range of operation within which a given energy storage system can safely operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the industrial safety framework, high-pressure jets involving toxic or flammable substances represent one of the major risks. The presence of one or more obstacles affects the extent of the plume, normally to higher dimensions, which means that an open field modeling would not be conservative and that it is necessary to explicitly consider the obstacles effects. Thus, to study this kind of scenario, only a computational fluid dynamic model allows a complete and proper description of the obstacles influence on the jet behavior. In this work, we deal with a realistic case-study of industrial interest which involves a high-pressure methane jet impinging a nearby cylindrical tank positioned in front of the jet release. The aims of this work are to define the geometrical parameters of the scenario, to quantify their influence on the jet-obstacle interaction, with respect to the free jet case, and then to find which of them are the most relevant. Therefore, the effect of the cylindrical tank on the lower flammability limit area extent is systematically studied using computational fluid dynamics simulations, performed with ANSYS® FLUENT®. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many process control and service operations in productions are carried out in control centers via visual display unit workstations. The operator's tasks often have great relevance for system safety. Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) should support the operator's workflow and their supervisory role. Multimodal output devices with task adequate structures of relevant information, process variables and units intent to improve the situation awareness of the operating staff. Intuitively designed input devices should promote quick responses in time critical situations to prevent loss of control. Mobil Display Screen Equipment can help to improve the communication between operators in control centers and plant operators in the field. In order to support operators optimally, modern ICT should be selected, designed and implemented carefully in the operating concept. Additional it should be adaptable to the operator's needs in a wide variety of situations. Possible risks, requirements and measurements are described using examples of operation errors and better masteries of situations as improvements due to new ICT. Within Risk Assessments of the control system the requirements of ICT are determined to optimize the operators' workplace and workload in order to support the operators' safety behaviour for their own and other employees' occupational safety and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PSRA (process safety risk assessment) is the most important element of an effective process safety management program. A PSRA is an organized and systematic effort but there are also highly complex tasks related to it. The effort is to create a complete identification of causes and consequences and subsequently set of effectiveness of barriers to manage the risk to acceptance level. The critical task is that the information to be compiled about the chemistry needs to be comprehensive enough for an accurate assessment of the reactivity hazards, fire and explosion characteristics and toxic releases. A successful PSRA also requires an unambiguously Risk Assessment Metric or risk graph, the availability of reliable clean (failure) data and must be organized properly. The organizational part of the PSRA's have to deal with demanding circumstances like time pressure, culture, workload, costs, motivation, procedures of classification and competent resources to complete the risk assessment in time. These elements together are typical ingredients introducing the human factor in PSRA's and the presence of so-called cognitive biases. These biases can have a negative influence on the validity of the risk assessment and can lead to incorrect and hence ineffective recommendations. Cognitive biases are defined by Kahneman as the tendency of systematic deviations when assessing risk instead of objective and rational judgment. The occurrence of these cognitive biases can be clarified by the understanding the dual-system of thinking (system 1 and system 2), Kahneman. The objective of this paper is to identify what kind of human factors and organisational factors are present in a PSRA and what can be done to prevent them? To identify these biases, we have evaluated multiple PSRA's from our company. The results of this evaluation show that human and organisational factor can be avoided, and more important incorrect conclusions and implementation of ineffective recommendations can be prevented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]