Resilience Calculation of Process Plants Under Seismic Loading: A Case Study

Author(s):  
Bledar Kalemi ◽  
Antonio C. Caputo ◽  
Fabrizio Paolacci

Abstract Earthquakes causes approximately 8% of total accidents in industrial facilities. Although there are several researches in literature pertaining to industrial resilience, none of them provides a modelling framework to quantify the seismic resilience of process plants. This paper presents a methodology for providing a quantitative measure of resilience and business economic losses for the process plants in case of a seismic event. The two main parameters which have utmost influence on the resilience of a process plant are operational capacity and recovery time, so they must be evaluated in proper way. Plant mapping and components vulnerability are the key modelling parameters of plant operational capacity. Exact recovery step functions are introduced based on General Reconstruction Activity Network (GRAN), considering interdependencies between plant components. In order to illustrate the discussed method, a nitric acid plant is set up as a case study. “PRIAMUS” software is used to generate the most probable damage scenarios, assuming the plant is located in seismic region of South Italy, Sicily. Ultimately, recovery curves are constructed for each damaged scenario, and business economic losses are calculated according to direct cost and business interruption. In short, this methodology provides a good estimation of the most critical components and economic losses of a process plant in case of a seismic event.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6959
Author(s):  
Seppo Sierla ◽  
Lotta Sorsamäki ◽  
Mohammad Azangoo ◽  
Antti Villberg ◽  
Eemeli Hytönen ◽  
...  

Researchers have proposed various models for assessing design alternatives for process plant retrofits. Due to the considerable engineering effort involved, no such models exist for the great majority of brownfield process plants, which have been in operation for years or decades. This article proposes a semi-automatic methodology for generating a digital twin of a brownfield plant. The methodology consists of: (1) extracting information from piping and instrumentation diagrams, (2) converting the information to a graph format, (3) applying graph algorithms to preprocess the graph, (4) generating a simulation model from the graph, (5) performing manual expert editing of the generated model, (6) configuring the calculations done by simulation model elements and (7) parameterizing the simulation model according to recent process measurements in order to obtain a digital twin. Since previous work exists for steps (1–2), this article focuses on defining the methodology for (3–5) and demonstrating it on a laboratory process. A discussion is provided for (6–7). The result of the case study was that only few manual edits needed to be made to the automatically generated simulation model. The paper is concluded with an assessment of open issues and topics of further research for this 7-step methodology.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Dongqiao Bai ◽  
Qi Yang ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Shouzhi Li

The objective of this study is to propose a solution for process plant upgradation becoming extinct due to obsoleteness of spares. The study will help in reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) based upgradation of control system of process plants in developing countries. Available options for plant upgradation are compact control, modular, and semiautomatic. RAM based upgradation provides solution which is high in reliability and availability (usually all parts are replaced with upgraded and compatible technology) and is easy to maintain throughout the service life of process plant. Case study for stacker and reclaimer of cement plant upgradation is considered to both implement and evaluate the idea. Upgradation methodology is finalized by expert’s feedback regarding selection of hardware with respect to availability, market survey to validate the opinion, and economical availability viability of selected hardware. Pre- and postupgradation scenarios are analyzed to validate the implementation of study and conclude the expected outcomes. The process plant upgradation yielded a cost-effective solution to the problem with automation increasing by 17%, plant maintainability increasing by 80%, and downtime of plant decreasing by 17%. Among all available options, modular design Op1 is considered the best choice that can satisfy RAM criteria.


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 756-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Abedi ◽  
Mohammad Shahriari

AbstractA global population increase and an improved standard of living are generally expected. To meet these demands, an increased production of chemicals will be necessary while protecting human health and the environment. However, most current methods of chemical production are unsustainable. New designs must result in plants that assure process and operator safety, the sustained health of workers and the community, and the protection of the environment. Traditional safety precautions and process controls minimize risk but cannot guarantee the prevention of accidents followed by serious consequences. Therefore, the general approach to environmental and safety problems must be changed from reactive to proactive. One way is to further develop the concept of inherent safety.In this paper some methods for inherent safety evaluations are reviewed. The aim of the study is to analyze the different tools available for inherent safety evaluation and identify the most important criteria in determining the inherent safety of a process plant. A model is proposed to show the interactions of different factors on the inherent safety level of a process and the model is illustrated by a case study.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Karagiannakis

This paper deals with state of the art risk and resilience calculations for industrial plants. Resilience is a top priority issue on the agenda of societies due to climate change and the all-time demand for human life safety and financial robustness. Industrial plants are highly complex systems containing a considerable number of equipment such as steel storage tanks, pipe rack-piping systems, and other installations. Loss Of Containment (LOC) scenarios triggered by past earthquakes due to failure on critical components were followed by severe repercussions on the community, long recovery times and great economic losses. Hence, facility planners and emergency managers should be aware of possible seismic damages and should have already established recovery plans to maximize the resilience and minimize the losses. Seismic risk assessment is the first step of resilience calculations, as it establishes possible damage scenarios. In order to have an accurate risk analysis, the plant equipment vulnerability must be assessed; this is made feasible either from fragility databases in the literature that refer to customized equipment or through numerical calculations. Two different approaches to fragility assessment will be discussed in this paper: (i) code-based Fragility Curves (FCs); and (ii) fragility curves based on numerical models. A carbon black process plant is used as a case study in order to display the influence of various fragility curve realizations taking their effects on risk and resilience calculations into account. Additionally, a new way of representing the total resilience of industrial installations is proposed. More precisely, all possible scenarios will be endowed with their weighted recovery curves (according to their probability of occurrence) and summed together. The result is a concise graph that can help stakeholders to identify critical plant equipment and make decisions on seismic mitigation strategies for plant safety and efficiency. Finally, possible mitigation strategies, like structural health monitoring and metamaterial-based seismic shields are addressed, in order to show how future developments may enhance plant resilience. The work presented hereafter represents a highly condensed application of the research done during the XP-RESILIENCE project, while more detailed information is available on the project website https://r.unitn.it/en/dicam/xp-resilience.


Author(s):  
Pooria Ebrahimi ◽  
Stefano Albanese ◽  
Leopoldo Esposito ◽  
Daniela Zuzolo ◽  
Domenico Cicchella

Providing safe tap water has been a global concern. Water scarcity, the ever-increasing water demand, temporal variation of water consumption, aging urban water infrastructure and anthropogenic pressure on the water...


Author(s):  
P A Bracewell ◽  
U R Klement

Piping design for ‘revamp’ projects in the process industry requires the retrieval of large amounts of ‘as-built’ data from existing process plant installations. Positional data with a high degree of accuracy are required. Photogrammetry, the science of measurement from photographs, was identified in Imperial Chemical Industries plc (ICI) as a suitable tool for information retrieval. The mathematical formulation enabling the definition of three-dimensional positions from photographic information is described. The process of using ICI's photogrammetric system for the definition of complete objects such as structures and pipes is illustrated. The need for specialized photogrammetric software for design purposes is explained. A case study describing how the photogrammetric system has been applied is described and graphical outputs from this exercise are shown. It is concluded that this particular photogrammetric system has proved to be a cost effective and accurate tool for the retrieval of ‘as-built’ information.


2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Langella ◽  
Angelo Basile ◽  
Antonello Bonfante ◽  
Florindo Antonio Mileti ◽  
Fabio Terribile

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