PROCESS ENGINEERING, RELIABILITY AND SAFETY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
Not binding prerequisites.
The course requires the well-established knowledge of basic elements of inorganic and organic chemistry, mathematical analysis and physics.
The final exam is a written test lasting approximately 3 hours, which verifies the acquisition of the expected knowledge and skills.
The written test consists of three different types of questions aimed at ascertaining the ability to:
1) summarize and critically analyze a topic (or part of a topic) covered within the course;
2) numerically solve a typical problem handle during the practical exercises (industrial ventilation, dispersion of substances in the atmosphere, fires, sizing of emergency devices);
3) compile a table for hazards identification, identify accidental scenarios and appropriately quantify the risk for simple industrial systems (represented through their “Piping and Instrumentation Design”).
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
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.
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the teaching, the student:
1) will be able to identify hazards and accident scenarios in industrial environments;
2) will be able to qualify and quantify (in probabilistic terms) the risk and evaluate the magnitude of the accident events identified during the hazard identification phase;
3) will be able to identify and propose mitigation measures and intervention devices in emergency conditions.
Module 1: Security Elements
Duration: 20 hours – Frontal lessons
Basic concepts: risk and danger (definitions within the context of reliability and safety). Illustration of the structure of a chemical company at risk of a major accident. Assessment of exposure to toxic/flammable compounds: evaporation models. Industrial ventilation: modeling and solving simple patterns in working environments.
Module 2: Risk Analysis
Duration: 24 hours - Lectures + 10 hours – Exercises
Description of the structure of a risk analysis. Identification of hazards and identification of accident scenarios, quantification of the probability of occurrence. Quantification of the magnitude of accident events. Risk estimation. Individual and social risk. Risk assessment criteria.
Module 3: Illustration of the operating principle of industrial equipment that intervenes in accident conditions.
Duration: 16 hours – Lectures + 2 hours - Exercises
Emergency devices. Torches, quench pools and gravity separators. Numerical applications for the sizing and verification of such equipment.
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. Assessment of exposure to toxic/flammable compounds: evaporation models. Industrial ventilation: modeling and solving simple patterns in working environments.
Module 2: Risk Analysis
Duration: 24 hours - Lectures + 10 hours – Exercises
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: 16 hours – Lectures + 2 hours - Exercises
Emergency devices.
Torches, quench pools and gravitational settlers.
Description of the hazards associated with the use of such equipment (e.g. runaway reactions and stability of chemical reactors) and definition of some typical accident scenarios. Numerical applications for the sizing and verification of such equipment.
The course will be conducted using both lectures and numerical exercises.
Frontal lessons 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.