AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course is devoted to the knowledge of techniques for reliability evaluation in process plants and to quantitative risk assessment in stationary process plants and multimodal HazMat transportation. Concerted application of skills in environmental and accident risk mitigation.

TEACHING METHODS

In-class lessons. Tutorials and numerical case-studies solved and critically discussed during the lessons. Self-directed team-work focused on acquring transversal knowledge to be assessed at the examination.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

1.Introduction

Qualitative and quantitative risk assessment. General Risk Model. Unwanted events classification. Personnel and process safety. Complementing economics with safety. Relevant national and international regulations.

2.Occupational Safety

Statistics and accident frequency evaluation. Performance indicators of personnel safety. Human factor and risk determining factors. Occupational health and ergonomics.

3.Hazard Identification and Analysis

Gas, vapour and dust hazardous properties and their evaluation. Risk indicators. Hazard identification tools and application to case-studies. Fire, explosion, instability and reactivity. Sound and vibration: basic concepts.

4.Reliability engineering and frequency evaluation

Theory of industrial reliability and elements of statistics. Frequency and probability.

Human and system reliability. Fault-tree analysis of complex systems. Case-study selection.

5.Severity and damage evaluation

Source term models.  Dispersion modelling of neutral and dense gas and cold jet. Fire scenarios modelling (flash fire, pool-fire, jet fire, fireball, ventilation controlled fire). Explosion modelling (vapour cloud explosion, physical explosion, runaway, cold and hot BLEVE).  Notable major accidents and relevant lessons.

6.Quantitative Risk Assessment

Local, individual and social risk. Damage models (threshold and probit approach). Risk acceptability criteria. Risk mitigation and design of emergency relief systems. Land use planning.  Risk in multimodal HazMat transportation. HSE risk management. Risk perception.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lecture slides are delivered in reduced electronic format at the end of the pertinent semester. Supporting material for tutorials is provided during the lessons and is adequate for passing the final examination

Reference texts available for consultation at University library, or on the web:

G. Nota. “Advances in Risk Management” Sciyo ed.(Chapter 4 : Trends, problems and outlook in process industry risk assessment and aspects of personal and process safety" by B. Fabiano and H. J. Pasman.  Free download at: http://www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-risk-management

P. Citti, G. Arcidiacono, G. Campatelli. “Fondamenti di affidabilità”. Mc Graw Hilll, Milano.

J. Casal "Evaluation of the effects and consequences of major accidents in industrial plants". Elsevier, Oxford, UK .

L. Verde, S. Moreno. “Il convogliamento degli scarichi di emergenza nell’industria chimica”. Franco Angeli ed., Milano.

Further consultation books:

Lee et al. “Lees’ Loss Prevention in the Process Industries” S. Mannan ed. vol. 1-3 Butterworth, Oxford, UK, 2011.

G.G. Brown. “Unit Operations” Hoepli ed.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

BRUNO FABIANO (President)

FABIO CURRÒ

PATRIZIA PEREGO

ANDREA REVERBERI

CARLO SOLISIO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

In strict accordance with the official program issued by Polytechnic School, Genoa University - Academic year 2017-2018.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The oral final exam is set to evaluate student’s knowledge level, design and application abilities, as well as effective technical communication skills. It includes a critical discussion on the team case-study performed and completed during the lesson period. Subsequenly it is requested to discuss topics pertinent to human safety and plant reliability, damage and severity modelling, as well as to numerically solve a practical design problem pertinent the examined  scenarios. 

During the "Winter session"  3 examination dates are fixed (January, February and lessons break), 2 examination dates are fixed during the "Summer session" (June and July) and 2 in the "Autumn session" (September and lessons break). All exam dates are fixed strictly following the offcial scheduling of the Polytechnic School. 

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The aim is to provide knowledge and solving capabilities on safety and loss prevention issues in the process industry, with emphasis on reliability, environmental and personnel/process risk. The effectiveness assessment during the course development is performed by monitoring capabilities in numerical applications, lessons learned form incidents and team case-studies.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

No formal requirements are foreseen; Chemical Plant and Chemical Engineering Principles represent useful background knowledge.

Lecture slides are delivered in reduced electronic format at the end of the pertinent semester. Supporting material for tutorials is provided during the lessons.

Optional references available for consultation at University library, or on the web:

G. Nota. “Advances in Risk Management” Sciyo ed. Freely available for download from http://www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-risk-management