The calculation of required fire resistance limits for engineering structures of technological pipe racks at oil and gas processing plants on the basis of an evaluation of the time needed for personnel evacuation and rescue in case of fire

Introduction. GOST R 12.3.047-2012 standard offers a methodology for determination of required fire resistance limits of engineering structures. This methodology is based on a comparison of values of the fire resistance limit and the equivalent fire duration. However, in practice incidents occur when, in absence of regulatory fire resistance requirements, a facility owner, who has relaxed the fire resistance requirements prescribed by GOST R 12.3.047–2012, is ready to accept its potential loss in fire for economic reasons. In this case, one can apply the probability of safe evacuation and rescue to compare distributions of fire resistance limits, on the one hand, and evacuation and rescue time, on the other hand.A methodology for the identification of required fire resistance limits. The probabilistic method for the identification of required fire resistance limits, published in work [1], was tested in this study. This method differs from the one specified in GOST R 12.3.047-2012. The method is based on a comparison of distributions of such random values, as the estimated time of evacuation or rescue in case of fire at a production facility and fire resistance limits for engineering structures.Calculations of required fire resistance limits. This article presents a case of application of the proposed method to the rescue of people using the results of full-scale experiments, involving a real pipe rack at a gas processing plant [2].Conclusions. The required fire resistance limits for pipe rack structures of a gas processing plant were identified. The calculations took account of the time needed to evacuate and rescue the personnel, as well as the pre-set reliability of structures, given that the personnel evacuation and rescue time in case of fire is identified in an experiment.

Optimizing the Prehospital-Hospital Emergency Care Path Application Value in Emergency Treatment of Patients with Cerebral Hemorrhage

Objective. To explore the effect of optimizing the prehospital-hospital emergency nursing path on the rescue speed, rescue effect, and patient prognosis of patients with cerebral hemorrhage. Methods. A retrospective study was performed to select 227 patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage who visited our hospital from August 2018 to October 2019, and we compared the optimization of the prehospital-hospital emergency nursing pathway (research group) with traditional prehospital time spent in the rescue and the prognosis of patients in the emergency care pathway (control group) in the hospital. The GOS score, FMA score, and Barthel index were used to compare the prognosis of the two groups of patients. Results. The prehospital-hospital emergency nursing route was optimized compared with the traditional nursing route. The rescue time of patients in each link was shorter ( P < 0.05 ), and the incidence of complications was low ( P < 0.05 ). The scales and scores all suggested that patients had a better prognosis ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Optimizing the prehospital-hospital emergency nursing path can significantly shorten the rescue time, improve the rescue effect, and improve the prognosis of patients.

Acute Kidney Injury in Crush Syndrome and Renal Disaster-Experience in Bangladesh after garment factory collapse

Background: Crush-syndrome usually resulting from earthquake and other natural disaster causes mortality and morbidity. A multistoried garment factory collapsed in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 24th April 2013 with about 4000 workers. Among the rescued victims, many of them develop crush – syndrome and AKI that led to a man-made renal disaster in Bangladesh. We analyzed outcome of severe AKI patient who required renal replacement therapy. Methods: Victims from accident site were first treated in primarily local hospital and primary care center. Suspected crush syndrome patients were rapidly transferred to tertiary hospital for dialysis and ICU support. We collect data of severe AKI patient by a standard questionnairebased onrenal disaster relief force – crush syndrome patient questionnaire. Results: We had experienced many AKI and crush syndrome after collapsed garment factory with 3500 workers which created a manmade renal disaster. We observed 27 severe AKI due to crush syndrome of Rana plaza with mean age 25.12 years, most of them were female (51.85%). Victims rescued as early as possible, average rescue time was 20.30 hours, 62.96% developed compartment syndrome and required fasciotomy. All of them got dialysis treatment; some of them required ICU support. Among all, 67% recovered completely and 26% died. Main causes of death were infection and DIC with MOF. Conclusions: Crush injury victims who developed severe AKI, required dialysis. Severe AKI patients who required dialysis had high mortality and morbidity. Early intervention to prevent AKI and complications may reduce mortality and morbidity. Bangladesh J Medicine July 2021; 32(2) : 107-112

Emergency Resource Location and Allocation in Traffic Contingency Plan for Sports Mega-Event

In view of the transactional and textual features on issue handling in mega-event traffic contingency plan, this paper gives a quantitative method for emergency resources location and allocation. Given that the requirement on safeguards in the sports mega-events is temporary and stringent, we first divide the facilities into temporary emergency facilities and fixed emergency facilities and the resources into material resources and human resources. Considering the uncertainty of emergency incidents, we then construct a mixed integer linear programming model. To solve this model, the bisection method is used to import the material quantity placed in each emergency facility, and the shortest path algorithm is used to import the rescue time matrix. Considering the slowness of convergence rate when the road network is large, a modified matrix real-coded genetic algorithm is designed with the crossover operator based on a greedy algorithm. The application of the model and algorithms is validated by the case based on 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Sensitivity analysis of some important parameters is also conducted to provide insights for traffic emergency resources management in sports mega-event.

Fish-Inspired Task Allocation Algorithm for Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Search and Rescue Missions

The challenge concerning the optimal allocation of tasks across multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (multi-UAVs) has significantly spurred research interest due to its contribution to the success of various fleet missions. This challenge becomes more complex in time-constrained missions, particularly if they are conducted in hostile environments, such as search and rescue (SAR) missions. In this study, a novel fish-inspired algorithm for multi-UAV missions (FIAM) for task allocation is proposed, which was inspired by the adaptive schooling and foraging behaviors of fish. FIAM shows that UAVs in an SAR mission can be similarly programmed to aggregate in groups to swiftly survey disaster areas and rescue-discovered survivors. FIAM’s performance was compared with three long-standing multi-UAV task allocation (MUTA) paradigms, namely, opportunistic task allocation scheme (OTA), auction-based scheme, and ant-colony optimization (ACO). Furthermore, the proposed algorithm was also compared with the recently proposed locust-inspired algorithm for MUTA problem (LIAM). The experimental results demonstrated FIAM’s abilities to maintain a steady running time and a decreasing mean rescue time with a substantially increasing percentage of rescued survivors. For instance, FIAM successfully rescued 100% of the survivors with merely 16 UAVs, for scenarios of no more than eight survivors, whereas LIAM, Auction, ACO and OTA rescued a maximum of 75%, 50%, 35% and 35%, respectively, for the same scenarios. This superiority of FIAM performance was maintained under a different fleet size and number of survivors, demonstrating the approach’s flexibility and scalability.

TRANSPORTING OBESE PERSONS USING AN EVACUATION PAD

Obesity is not only a medical illness but also a cosmetic problem. Obesity can be defined by the BMI index, which is not very accurate. The ABSI index, which includes BMI, the person’s waist circumference, and their height may be used to more accurately determine obesity. Time is very important in saving people's lives, especially in emergencies. The rescue time for obese people is even longer — often much longer — than for other disabled people. This is because more rescuers are needed, problems arise when they have to go through the door or go up and down stairs. For the evacuation of obese people, evacuation pads located under the mattress are often used. Evacuation pads are used, for example, by hospitals or social service homes. Evacuation pads are designed for use by nurses, other emergency staff, or caretakers. In this exercise, four people were used – two nurses and two firemen. To find out the advantages and disadvantages of the evacuation pad, we performed a tactical exercise. During the tactical exercise, the victim was evacuated by a single nurse, then by two nurses. After that, the victim was rescued by one firefighter and then two firefighters. This research is relevant to aspects of the rescue of immobile obese people with a special evacuation aid. It demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of an evacuation pad based on actual tactical rescue exercises.

USAR simulation system: presenting spatial strategies in agents' task allocation under uncertainties

Task allocation in uncertainty conditions is a key problem for agents attempting to achieve harmony in disaster environments. This paper presents an agent- based simulation to investigate tasks allocation through the consideration of appropriate spatial strategies to deal with uncertainty in urban search and rescue (USAR) operation. The proposed method is presented in five phases: ordering existing tasks, finding coordinating agent, holding an auction, applying allocation strategies, and implementation and observation of environmental uncertainties. The methodology was evaluated in Tehran's District 1 for 6.6, 6.9, and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes. The simulation started by calculating the number of injured individuals, which was 28856, 73195 and 111463 people for each earthquake, respectively. The Simulations were performed for each scenario for a variety of rescuers (1000, 1500, 2000 rescuer). In comparison with contract net protocol (CNP), the standard time of rescue operations in the proposed approach includes at least 13% of improvement and the best percentage of recovery was 21 %. Interval uncertainty analysis and the comparison of the proposed strategies showed that an increase in uncertainty leads to an increased rescue time for CNP of 67.7 hours, and for strategies one to four an increased rescue time of 63.4, 63.2, 63.7, and 56.5 hours, respectively. Considering strategies in the task allocation process, especially spatial strategies, resulted in the optimization and increased flexibility of the allocation as well as conditions for fault tolerance and agent-based cooperation stability in USAR simulation system.

Experimental investigations on a portable atmospheric water generator for maritime rescue

To offer an alternative for supplying fresh water to people in distress in tropical seas before rescue or to garrison soldiers on a small reef, a portable solar-photovoltaic atmospheric water generator was designed and tested experimentally, and is composed of a water generating module, a water purifying module, a power supply and control module, and a buoyancy module. The results showed that the best water production rate of 460 mL/h was achieved when Tin = 27, RHin = 92%, Qa = 600 m3/h, with the desalination rate above 99.65%, proving itself a feasible solution as a portable desalination device. The daily water production can reach 5.52 L/d, which is more than twice the minimum quantity of the WHO drinking water standard (2.5 L/capita-day), and the energy consumption can be controlled under 200 W. The influences of major operating parameters on the device performance were analyzed and performance comparisons were carried out with the reported AWG products/prototypes. By integrating with a distress signal launcher and positioning module to shorten rescue time, the device has the potential to be employed as a small rescue platform for people in distress in tropical oceans, carried on board ship as a precaution.