Evaluation of human factor engineering influence in nuclear safety using probabilistic safety assessment techniques

Kerntechnik ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 470-477
Author(s):  
M. Farcasiu ◽  
C. Constantinescu

Abstract This paper provides the empirical basis to support predictions of the Human Factor Engineering (HFE) influences in Human Reliability Analysis (HRA). A few methods were analyzed to identify HFE concepts in approaches of Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs): Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction (THERP), Human Cognitive Reliability (HCR) and Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM), Success Likelihood Index Method (SLIM) Plant Analysis Risk – Human Reliability Analysis (SPAR-H), A Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction (ATHEANA) and Man-Machine-Organization System Analysis (MMOSA). Also, in order to identify other necessary PSFs in HFE, an additional investigation process of human performance (HPIP) in event occurrences was used. Thus, the human error probability could be reduced and its evaluating can give out the information for error detection and recovery. The HFE analysis model developed using BHEP values (maximum and pessimistic) is based on the simplifying assumption that all specific circumstances of HFE characteristics are equal in importance and have the same value of influence on human performance. This model is incorporated into the PSA through the HRA methodology. Finally, a clarification of the relationships between task analysis and the HFE is performed, ie between potential human errors and design requirements.

Author(s):  
Yongping Qiu ◽  
Jiandong He ◽  
Juntao Hu ◽  
Yucheng Zhuo ◽  
Jie He

It is well recognized that humans play an important role in the safety operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Usually three types of human interactions (HIs) are defined in the human reliability analysis (HRA) of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for NPPs, i.e., pre-initiating event HIs, initiating event-related HIs, and post-initiating event HIs. In this paper, a brief introduction of the HRA methodology for CAP1400 nuclear power plant is first presented, including internal events and external events (mainly internal fire and flooding) HRA. Next, the CAP1400 human failure event quantification content is given with a typical example, and some insights and proposals based on CAP1400 PSA/HRA results are discussed. Finally, the application of HRA in human factor engineering design of CAP1400 is described. The human actions (HAs) most important to safety are identified via a combination of probabilistic and deterministic analyses, and then addressed when conducting the human factor engineering program. The CAP1400 HRA is one of the most important PSA elements and provides fundamental support for CAP1400 PSA and the relevant applications.


Author(s):  
Danilo T. M. P. Abreu ◽  
Marcos C. Maturana ◽  
Marcelo R. Martins ◽  
Siegberto R. Schenk

Abstract During a ship life cycle, one of the most critical phases in terms of safety refers to harbor maneuvers, which take place in restricted and congested waters, leading to higher collision and grounding risks in comparison to open sea navigation. In this scenario, a single accident may stop the harbor’s traffic as well as incur into patrimonial damage, environmental pollution, human casualties and reputation losses. In order to support the vessel’s captain during the maneuver, local experienced maritime pilots stay on board coordinating the ship navigation while in restricted waters. Because of their shorter relative duration, harbor maneuvers accidents are more probable to occur due to human errors — reinforced by the inherent surrounding difficulties —, rather than machinery failures, for instance. The human errors are object of study of the human reliability analysis (HRA). Aiming to assess the main factors contributing to human errors in pilot-assisted harbor ship maneuvers, this work proposes a Bayesian network model for HRA, supported by a prospective human performance model for quantification. Similar works focus mainly on open sea navigation and collision accidents, which do not reflect the strict conditions found on port areas. Additionally, most of the models are highly dependent on expert’s opinion for quantification. Therefore, the novelty of this work resides into two aspects: a) incorporation of harbor specific conditions for maritime navigation HRA, including the performance of ship’s crew and maritime pilots; and b) the use of a prospective human performance model as an alternative to expert’s opinion for quantification purposes. To illustrate the usage of the proposed methodology, this paper presents an analysis of the route keeping task along waterways, starting from the quantification of human error probabilities (HEP) and including the ranking of the main external factors that contribute to the HEP.


Author(s):  
Mashrura Musharraf ◽  
Allison Moyle ◽  
Faisal Khan ◽  
Brian Veitch

Data scarcity has always been a significant challenge in the domain of human reliability analysis (HRA). The advancement of simulation technologies provides opportunities to collect human performance data that can facilitate both the development and validation paradigms of HRA. The potential of simulator data to improve HRA can be tapped through the use of advanced machine learning tools like Bayesian methods. Except for Bayesian networks, Bayesian methods have not been widely used in the HRA community. This paper uses a Bayesian method to enhance human error probability (HEP) assessment in offshore emergency situations using data generated in a simulator. Assessment begins by using constrained noninformative priors to define the HEPs in emergency situations. An experiment is then conducted in a simulator to collect human performance data in a set of emergency scenarios. Data collected during the experiment are used to update the priors and obtain informed posteriors. Use of the informed posteriors enables better understanding of the performance, and a more reliable and objective assessment of human reliability, compared to traditional assessment using expert judgment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Taverna Martins Pereira de Abreu ◽  
Marcos Coelho Maturana ◽  
Enrique Andrés López Droguett ◽  
Marcelo Ramos Martins

Abstract During a ship life cycle, one of the most critical phases in terms of safety refers to harbor maneuvers, which take place in restricted and congested waters, leading to higher collision and grounding risks in comparison to open sea navigation. In this scenario, a single accident may stop the harbor's traffic as well as incur in patrimonial damage, environmental pollution, human casualties, and reputation losses. In order to support the vessel's captain during the maneuver, local experienced maritime pilots stay on board coordinating the ship navigation while in restricted waters. Aiming to assess the main factors contributing to human errors in pilot-assisted harbor ship maneuvers, this work proposes a Bayesian network model for human reliability analysis (HRA), supported by a prospective human performance model for quantification. The novelty of this work resides into two aspects: (a) incorporation of harbor specific conditions for maritime navigation HRA, including the performance of ship's crew and maritime pilots and (b) the use of a prospective human performance model as an alternative to expert's opinion for quantification purposes. To illustrate the usage of the proposed methodology, this paper presents an analysis of the route keeping task along waterways, starting from the quantification of human error probabilities (HEP) and including the ranking of the main performance shaping factors that contribute to the HEP.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Franciosi ◽  
Valentina Di Pasquale ◽  
Raffaele Iannone ◽  
Salvatore Miranda

Purpose: Human factors play an inevitable role in maintenance activities, and the occurrence of Human Errors (HEs) affects system reliability and safety, equipment performance and economic results. The high HE rate increased researchers’ attention towards Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) and HE assessment approaches. In these approaches, various environmental and individual factors influence the performance of maintenance operators affecting Human Error Probability (HEP) with a consequent variability in the success of intervention. However, a deep analysis of such factors in the maintenance field, often called Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs), is still missing. This has led the authors to systematically evaluate the literature on Human Error in Maintenance (HEM) and on the PSFs, in order to provide a shared PSF taxonomy.Design/methodology/approach: A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted to identify and select peer-reviewed papers that provided evidence on the relationship between maintenance activities and human performance. The obtained results provided a wide overview in the field of interest, shedding light on three main research areas of investigation: methodologies for human error analysis in maintenance, performance shaping factors and maintenance error consequences. In particular, papers belonging to the area of PSFs were analysed in-depth in order to identify and classify the PSFs, with the aim of achieving the PSF taxonomy for maintenance activities. The effects of each PSF on human reliability were defined and detailed.Findings: A total of 63 studies were selected and then analysed through a systematic methodology. 46% of these studies presented a qualitative/quantitative assessment of PSFs through application in different maintenance activities. Starting from the findings of the aforementioned papers, a PSF taxonomy specific for maintenance activities was proposed. This taxonomy represents an important contribution for researchers and practitioners towards the improvement of HRA methods and their applications in industrial maintenance.Originality/value: The analysis outlines the relevance of considering HEM because different error types occur during the maintenance process with non-negligible effects on the system. Despite a growing interest in HE assessment in maintenance, a deep analysis of PSFs in this field and a shared PSF taxonomy are missing. This paper fills the gap in the literature with the creation of a PSF taxonomy in industrial maintenance. The proposed taxonomy is a valuable contribution for growing the awareness of researchers and practitioners about factors influencing maintainers’ performance.


Author(s):  
Mashrura Musharraf ◽  
Allison Moyle ◽  
Faisal Khan ◽  
Brian Veitch

Data scarcity has always been a significant challenge in the domain of human reliability analysis (HRA). The advancement of simulation technologies provides opportunities to collect human performance data that can facilitate both the development and validation paradigms of HRA. The potential of simulator data to improve HRA can be tapped through the use of advanced machine learning tools like Bayesian methods. Except for Bayesian networks, Bayesian methods have not been widely used in the HRA community. This paper uses a Bayesian method to enhance human error probability (HEP) assessment in offshore emergency situations using data generated in a simulator. Assessment begins by using constrained non-informative priors to define the HEPs in emergency situations. An experiment is then conducted in a simulator to collect human performance data in a set of emergency scenarios. Data collected during the experiment is used to update the priors and obtain informed posteriors. Use of the informed posteriors enable better understanding of the performance, and a more reliable and objective assessment of human reliability, compared to traditional assessment using expert judgment.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Čepin

The human reliability analysis (HRA) is a highly subjective evaluation of human performance, which is an input for probabilistic safety assessment, which deals with many parameters of high uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to show that subjectivism can have a large impact on human reliability results and consequently on probabilistic safety assessment results and applications. The objective is to identify the key features, which may decrease subjectivity of human reliability analysis. Human reliability methods are compared with focus on dependency comparison between Institute Jožef Stefan human reliability analysis (IJS-HRA) and standardized plant analysis risk human reliability analysis (SPAR-H). Results show large differences in the calculated human error probabilities for the same events within the same probabilistic safety assessment, which are the consequence of subjectivity. The subjectivity can be reduced by development of more detailed guidelines for human reliability analysis with many practical examples for all steps of the process of evaluation of human performance.


Author(s):  
Samet Bicen ◽  
Cagatay Kandemir ◽  
Metin Celik

This study conducts a practical application of shipboard operation human reliability analysis (SOHRA) to a crankshaft overhauling operation of a general cargo ship at dry-docking period. The SOHRA approach includes error producing condition (EPC) and general task type (GTT) parameters to consistently calculate the human error probability (HEP) values of operation steps. In this case, a comprehensive overhauling of main engine was planned at shipyard since the ship has experienced a catastrophic failure. An onboard survey to ship engine room is conducted to monitor the operational conditions. The targeted operation, involves disassembly, maintenance, and reassembly stages, is monitored based on 39 sub-tasks. According to the initial findings, immediate recovery actions are suggested to eliminate critical safety issues in a timely manner. Moreover, an extended discussion through long-term safety recommendations are also provided. The results revealed from case study illustrates that HEP values in maintenance operations are sensitive to ship operating conditions. The proposed approach is found very useful by company executives to support ship technical superintendents in critical operation monitoring. The further study is considered to develop mobile application of SOHRA specific to maintenance operations onboard ships.


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