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Human failures are a major cause of breakdowns in upstream facilities because of challenging working conditions. A study of human errors from an incident investigation in upstream facilities was carried out to understand the topography of human errors. A Tripod Beta diagram was developed from 107 incidents gathered during 2017–2020, and the human error taxonomy was used to identify the human errors caused by individuals and contributory human factors responsible for the incidents. A mistake is the most common human failing in a major incident, contributing to 59%, followed by a violation and a skill‐based error with scores of 36% and 5%, respectively. Knowledge‐based mistakes were prevalent in 48% of the analyzed reports, indicating a significant gap in any decision involving problem‐solving and diagnosis. Situational and routine violations with 14% and 10% scoring, respectively, show the complexity of the offshore work environment, which prompts workers to violate and believe that jobs cannot be completed without violations. Disciplinary action, providing a safer workplace, and enhancing the safety culture were proposed to combat workplace violations. Meanwhile, an up‐skilling of the workforce with adequate information and instruction will mitigate human errors leading to a mistake. Lastly, revisiting human factor engineering is required to prevent slip and lapse errors.

Polymers and textiles can be found in every facet of human everyday life particularly as household items and apparels though most of them are inherently flammable. Surface finishing is a convenient approach to endow polymers and textiles with flame retardancy without sacrificing intrinsic properties of the bulk materials. In this contribution, we present a state-of-the-art review of a variety of surface finishing approaches to provide polymers and textiles with fire-resistance. The reviewed works are organized as follows: layer-by-layer assembly, dip coating, in-situ solution-based synthesis, and brushing/spray coating. The discussion then continues with a thorough assessment of the materials' flame-retardant performances. We also attempt to shed lights on key aspects of high-performance coatings including applications of bio-based or advanced materials, synergistic combinations, microstructure and interface evaluations, multifunctional coating, and many more. We hope that this contribution provides meaningful insights for researchers to better formulate and develop new synthesis protocol to fabricate high-performance flame-retardant coating.

Fire-induced domino accidents are less probable but highly consequent. Although past studies conducted risk assessment of such events, classical models were used for impact estimation. Moreover the influence of varying weather on evolution of fire domino effect was not investigated, where past research necessitates the use of computational fluid dynamics to perform such analysis. This paper adopts a consolidated risk analysis approach to perform consequence modeling using fire dynamics simulator. Various atmospheric conditions were incorporated in the model. The outcomes were used in probabilistic analysis to estimate the escalation probabilities. Risk of domino events was presented as domino levels. It was found that 37% reduction in humidity ratio resulted in 10% decrease in tanks failure time. At 3 and 6 m/s winds, the failure time of tank in flame direction reduced by 56% and 80%, whereas the escalation probability increased by 3 and 4 orders respectively. The tank farm failed in 11.3 and 12.85 min at 3 and 6 m/s respectively, which is less than the suggested mitigation time.

In this work, thermal runaway of lithium-ion battery was characterised under adiabatic and non-adiabatic conditions using Accelerating Rate Calorimeter (ARC) and oven respectively. Battery with higher electrical capacity demonstrated a higher tendency to experience thermal runaway with shorter induction time and resulted with a more energetic response, as indicated by higher maximum temperature rise. Oven tests at 190 °C were able to capture thermal runaway characteristics in batteries with 100% state-of-charge (SOC) only and resulted in a maximum temperature of 738–783 °C. Two batteries were more inclined to suffer thermal runaway as the induction time was reduced by 8.6% to 115.98 min, compared to 126.92 min for single cell. A further inclined by 15% to 107.72 min was recorded for two batteries with parallel electrical connection. Meanwhile, ARC was able to induce thermal runaway in 50% SOC battery and instigated exothermic thermal decomposition in 0% SOC battery due to the longer heating process. The maximum temperatures recorded from ARC tests were between 404 and 522 °C, lower than oven tests since some of the battery energy content was released slowly during the long self-heating period, leaving the battery with less energy for rapid release during thermal runaway.

Purpose: In recent years, the number of high-rise buildings in Malaysia has been increasing. Therefore, it is essential to take evacuation into consideration especially for emergency conditions such as fire, explosion and natural disasters. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the escape time in typical Malaysian high-rise residential buildings. Design/methodology/approach: This work comprises simulation on three buildings around the Selangor area in Malaysia. Quantitative methodology is adopted using Pathfinder software to simulate the evacuation process and time of the three typical Malaysian high-rise residential buildings. Four parameters were studied namely, the occupant load density, walking speed of first and last occupants, average of evacuation time per floor for the three buildings and effect of placement of emergency staircase on travel time. Findings: Findings show that 12 m2 which is double the allowable occupants' density in Malaysia increases evacuation time by 67.9% while the placement of the emergency staircase on the left and middle section of a building significantly affects the evacuation time by 21.2%. In conclusion, from the simulation studies, it is recognized that a higher occupant's density affects the evacuation time. Originality/value: This work could provide information on escape time for future construction of high-rise buildings in Malaysia. Hence, the specification and design of buildings could be reviewed based on the results obtained from this simulation. This information could be beneficial to the building regulators and developers thus enhancing the knowledge of building constructor and possible issues in the design of staircases, corridors and height of buildings.

When considering fire safety design scenarios for car parking buildings it is possible that there will be spread of fire between multiple vehicles. Such scenarios need to account for the likely rate of heat release curve from already burning vehicles as this will impact on the likelihood that other vehicles will ignite and so increase the severity of the fire. Currently design fires for a single passenger vehicle are often either given as a specified rate of heat release history or as mathematical functions with fixed coefficients irrespective of the size (curb weight) of the vehicle. In this paper, experimental results taken from the literature are used to determine a probabilistic approach to characterise a single passenger vehicle design fire. It is found that a peak fire growth function and an exponential fire decay function gives an appropriate combination in which the parameters for the two functions can be determined from distribution statistics.

Working at heights has always been a concern for the process industry and construction industry. According to recent statistics, falls from heights are the leading cause for at least a third of all construction accidents, based on the accident reports from Malaysia, United States of America (USA) and Great Britain. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the contributing factors for fatal accidents due to falls from heights based on published official data by government agencies such as Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) in Malaysia and Occupational Safety and Health and Administration (OSHA) in the USA. Thorough risk analysis of accidents due to falls from heights is needed as a step to improve the safety of workers and reduce the number of fatalities. The methodology used was developed through an in-depth literature review from relevant publications that discussed falls from heights investigations ranging from individual characters to management commitment and site conditions. The data is available and accessible to the public via OSHA and DOSH and can be obtained by browsing their websites. The data were analysed based on the relevant understanding of the description mentioned in the accident reports and its relationship with the contributing factors. Eventually, from the analysis, the factors which affect more the numbers of fatal accidents due to falls from heights were obtained. In this study, 105 fatal accidents due to falls from heights from Malaysia data and 101 fatal accidents from USA data were selected through a precise selecting process and analysed to determine which factor was the highest contributor to increasing the number of fatal workplace accidents due to falls from heights. Results indicate that a lack of effective management is the highest contributor to falls from height fatal accidents.

Landfill fires are a growing problem for the environment and safety at the global level. In recent years, certain incidents of landfill fire have occurred in Malaysia, describing the need to assess the risk of fire ignition and its consequences in Malaysian landfills. The objectives of this study are to analyze the source of ignition for landfill fire in Malaysia using the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and to discuss the consequences of this fire using the BowtieXP. In addition, ALOHA software is used to assess the health risk impact of landfill gas emissions. The results of the analyzes helped to propose counter measures to reduce the risk of fire in landfills. From the findings of this study, several causes of surface landfill fires have been found within Malaysia by using FTA such as flammable gas emission, combustible material, uncompressed residual waste, naked flame, smoking, and weather. The consequences of the landfill fire determined by BowtieXP software are negative effects on health due to emissions that can be toxic mostly, and forest fire. The concentration of seven gases emitted from landfill fires was tested using ALOHA software. The four gases CO, CO2, NH4, and CH4have recorded a high concentration in comparison with the air quality regulatory limits, which means adverse effect on health. At the same time, the rest of the gases namely NO2, SO2, and H2S have shown lower concentration (ppm), mean null effect on health. Local government, environmental protection authorities and other regulatory bodies should work together with the management of landfill sites to make landfills safer for the community and the environment.

One of the most important component in performance-based design is tenability analysis study in a compartment. What it means by tenability analysis in this study is by getting the Available Safe Egress Time (ASET) based on several tenability criteria parameters namely Fractional Effective Dose (FED) for gases and thermal, smoke layer and visibility. To perform the tenability analysis; (1) selection and measurement of place of study i .e. two different room size in Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, (2) conduct fire load energy density survey at the place of study, (3) simulate probabilistic zone model simulation using B-RISK design fire tool; and finally (4) the tenability analysis itself. As a conclusion from the work, the values for each tenability criteria and results from B-RISK simulations suggest that the ideal time taken for Toxi city (FED Gases) ≤ 60s, Heat Transfer (FED Thermal) ≤ 60s, and Smoke Layer Height ≤ 30s . Thus, the ASET for both office layouts a re set a t 30s due to the shortest time to reach tenability criteria.

There are several non-renewable sources for the generation of electricity and one of them is by the gas-fired power plant. Gas-fired power plant is utilizing natural gas which is mainly composed of methane in its process for the production of electricity. The usage of natural gas poses safety concerns should unwanted events occurred. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate possible consequences of jet fire due to leakage of pipes inside the plant using ALOHA simulation software and followed by Quantitative Risk Calculation approach. There are several parameters studied in this work such as the size of leakage aperture, pipeline pressure, pipeline temperature and wind speed. It was found from the study that the bigger the leakage size and the higher the pipeline pressure resulted to greater consequence. Meanwhile, the higher the temperature of the pipeline has resulted a lesser consequence. It was also found that variation of the wind speed does not affect the degree of consequences in terms of severity. Moreover, the consequence from the worst case scenario was studied where it was found that heat radiation intensity from the possible jet fires at a distance of 50m, 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m are 12.1 kW/m2 , 3.04 kW/m2 , 0.754 kW/m2 , 0.342 and 0.196 kW/m2 respectively. As a conclusion, the study has shown that the consequence of jet fire will only pose a deadly threat to the workers inside the plant compound. This study serves as a structured work for consequence assessment for other types of premises in the future.

Over recent years, performance-based design approach has gained acceptance in the engineering community around the world. This has prompted an expanded demand in engineering approaches to the assessment of fire safety in structures. Two arising questions in designing car parking buildings are (1) if there had been another vehicle parked next to or a space away from the van would the fire have spread given no interruption by firefighters and/or fire suppression systems? (2) If so, what is the probability that the spread occurs? This work quantitatively assesses these questions using recent research into the risk-based design of car parking buildings. The probability of fire spread is formulated using the knowledge of the possible rate of heat release outputs from single passenger vehicles coupled with a prediction of time to ignition. There are two scenarios considered for the assessment, either where the vehicles are parked next to each other or where the vehicles are parked one space apart. The analysis shows that the probability of fire spreading to a vehicle in an adjacent space 0.63–0.90 while when there is a space in between, the highest probability of fire spread is 0.23 but spread may not occur at all.

Timber is one of the most sustainable and renewable raw materials available. Globally, it has been increasingly used for the manufacture of home and workplace furniture. Timber products are known to have ignition resistance and a low heat release rate. These characteristics delay burning and maintain the structural durability of a product, protecting both the occupants and their properties in a fire. Timber, however, experiences thermal degradation during combustion, yielding smoke, heat, toxic gases, and char when burned. To understand the fire conduct of timber, extensive knowledge in its process of decomposition is essential. This paper, therefore, reviewed the methods of flammability tests widely employed to investigate the reaction of timber and timber-based product to fire, namely cone calorimeter test, room-corner test, limiting oxygen index (LOI) test, furnace test, and single burning item test (SBI). In addition, an overview of the fire retardant treatments; impregnation and coatings was also presented. The potential effects of fire retardants on the durability, strength, hygroscopicity, corrosion, machinability, glueing characteristics, and paintability of the timber were also highlighted.

The high capacity and voltage properties demonstrated by lithium-ion batteries render them as the preferred energy carrier in portable electronic devices. The application of the lithium-ion batteries which previously circulating and contained around small-scale electronics is now expanding into large scale emerging markets such as electromobility and stationary energy storage. Therefore, the understanding of the risk involved is imperative. Thermal runaway is the most common failure mode of lithium-ion battery which may lead to safety incidents. Transport process of immense amounts of heat released during thermal runaway of lithium-ion battery to neighboring batteries in a module can lead to cascade failure of the whole energy storage system. In this work, a model is developed to predict the propagation of lithium-ion battery in a module for large scale applications. For this purpose, kinetic of material thermal decomposition is combined with heat transfer modelling. The simulation is built based on chemical kinetics at component level of a singular cell and energy balance that accounts for conductive and convective heat transfer.

This paper describes the application of the flux‐time product ignition criterion and the point source flame radiation model to predict the time to ignition in multiple vehicle spread scenarios. Ten experiments from the literature have been selected due to sufficiency of information required to apply the methods. The outcome of this work is to be applied to a risk‐based model for the design of car parking buildings to determine when and if a fire spreads between vehicles; therefore, the analysis suggests properties of a representative material that can reasonably account for those external vehicle components that are most likely to ignite first. The application of both methods to the complex problem of multiple vehicle ignition requires several assumptions and simplifications which are discussed in the paper.

Building Research Establishment (BRE), United Kingdom have carried out several full-scale experiments of vehicle fire as to address the fire spread between vehicles. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the capability of the B-RISK zone modelling software to simulate the BRE multiple vehicle fire spread test. Using the information gathered from the work by BRE, series of simulations have been conducted. The results of the simulations are compared with the results from the experiments. Analysis shows that the predicted results from the B-RISK simulations give slightly faster time of ignition to the ones obtained using hand calculation. This could be due to B-RISK includes the radiation effect from the underside of the hot upper layer. As a conclusion, the analysis shows that using the B-RISK simulation software with additional radiation effects does not improve the result as compared to using the hand calculation considering the level of uncertainties which required to be assumed on some input parameters e.g. HRRPUA, heat of combustion, and/or latent heat of gasification.

The paper proposes a Monte Carlo probabilistic model in estimating egress time from Musolla to the muster area of Ledang Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit using EvacuatioNZ software. The complexity of the egress process is associated with the behaviour of occupants throughout the egress process. Hence the objective of the paper is to quantitatively establish the endurance time of egress process by validating several components of human behaviour in the EvacuatioNZ simulation. Human behavior factors such as human re-entry after escaping and crowd behavior are taken into consideration prior simulation runs of the egress process. From the simulation, the range of evacuation times from the origin point of escape to the muster area is estimated to be between 7.17 min to 18.78 min with a mean of 11.28 min.