PROCESS ENGINEERING, RELIABILITY AND SAFETY
The course requires the well-established knowledge of basic elements of inorganic and organic chemistry, mathematical analysis and physics.
There is only one final exam, which ensures the acquisition of the expected knowledge and skills by conducting a written test lasting about 3 hours.
The written test consists of three different types of questions aimed at assessing: 1)the ability to present a topic (or part of a topic) treated in the course in a comprehensive manner; 2)the ability to answer briefly and precisely to a specific question (typically this is the numerical solution of a problem type); 3) the ability to use the knowledge and skills acquired in order to analyze issues not explicitly addressed in the course.
Companies and processes that deal with hazardous substances which are capable of causing accidents with consequences of great magnitude on both workers and citizens (eg. fires, explosions, release of gaseous toxic substances, etc ..), need to be carefully analyzed and characterized from a security point of view.
The course aims to give the students a complete understanding of these issues, addressing them to the management of a company with a full and total awareness of the responsibilities related to the safety of industrial activities at high risk. This goes through the acquisition of a basic knowledge related to the risk assessment in process companies.
Module 1: Safety Elements
Duration: 20 hours - Lectures
Basic concepts: risk, definition of risk in the process industries.
Illustration of the structure of a chemical company at risk of a major accident with a focus on the risk factors present in the production area. Chemical risk, classification of substances and their dangers. Elements of toxicology. Assessment of exposure to volatile toxic compounds: monitoring (absorption and adsorption) and forecasting models. Individual measurement and protection devices. Damage due to exposure to toxic compounds.
Module 2: Risk Analysis
Duration: 32 hours - Lectures
Description of the structure of a risk analysis.
Identification of hazards and identification of accident scenarios (historical analysis, checklists (checklists), FMEA, FMECA, HAZOP, ROA) and quantification of the probability of occurrence (basics of probability theory, Boolean algebra, fault tree).
Quantification of the magnitude of incidental events (flow of a liquid through a break, flow of steam through a break, physics of the atmosphere and instant and continuous gas releases, characterization of the stability of the chemical compounds: detonations and explosions, flammability characteristics of fluids, gases, dusts, and fog, flammability and explosion limits, ignition sources, pool fires, jet fires, flash fires, fireball, dust explosions, elements of thermal stability).
Risk estimation. Individual and societal risk. Risk classification. Criteria for risk assessment.
Module 3: Illustration of the principle of operation of industrial equipment involved in accidental scenarios (module with theoretical exercises)
Duration: 20 hours - Lectures
Emergency devices.
Torches, quench pools and gravitational settlers. Definition of some typical accidental scenarios. Design and operational check of such apparata.
The course will be conducted entirely using lectures in which, in addition to the normal teaching activities, you will make extensive use of multimedia movies in order to promote the learning of all the notions concerning: 1) the operation mode of the treated industrial equipment; 2) the dynamics of all the analyzed processes; 3) the possible accident scenarios related to the use of the treated equipment.
The teacher receives on appointment. It is possible to book an appointment by sending an email to: sabrina.copelli@uninsubria.it.