This post gives some brief details about technical safety studies used in process industries. Technical Safety and Process or functional Safety will describe the safety requirements related to the design and operation of hazardous processes. Technical Safety comprises a set of discrete elements that are applied in the field of risk analysis and management to help identify, understand and evaluate risks, and to specify solutions necessary to reduce risks levels as low as reasonably practicable. These elements can be applied as standalone or collective tools or techniques to achieve design or operational integrity and assurance.
Some of the technical safety studies carried out in process industries is as below:
FEA/FGDEA (Fire Explosion Assessment/ Fire Gas Dispersion Explosion Assessment)
The FEA/FGDEA shall include all necessary physical effects modelling from fire, explosion and gas dispersion which are necessary to develop PFP requirements, Plot Plan and Equipment Layouts as per company standards or international standards.
Flare Radiation, Dispersion and Noise Analysis
The objective of this consequence analysis is to determine the sterile area radius and minimum flare height as required to achieve the design criteria required by company and international standards.
Noise Mapping Study
Noise mapping study shall identify noise generating sources and estimate the noise level at the plant boundary line and where relevant, in the surrounding community areas. Absolute and cumulative noise levels due to the emissions from all the sources.
H2S Mapping Study
The study should carry risk assessment for the each station and providing the results of the assessment are communicated and implemented as necessary, this should improve local knowledge on the risks from sour fluids.
The mapping assessment should be applied as applicable to the equipment/process units and interconnecting pipework, and identify the areas in the each station according to the risk categories.
Fire & Gas Mapping Study
The detector layout design for accumulation events shall use 3D modelling F&G Mapping to assure that the detection meets the identified detection performance criteria (e.g., fire sizes, gas cloud sizes).
The following minimum detection coverage per zone is to be applied:
• 90 % for a single detector alarm based on N detectors in the zone.
• 85 % for two or more detectors alarming based on N detectors in the zone.
The number of detectors N is determined by the identified voting requirements and how the voting provides availability for detection in the zone, typically N=>3.
RAM (Reliability, Availability and Maintainability) Study
Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) analysis has been widely used by operators to develop production solutions which minimize impact on revenue and expenditure.
RAM analysis provides a valuable design review technique to compare alternative design options and evaluate potential effects of changes especially during the conceptual and FEED phases of the project. RAM analysis at EPC stage is used to establish minimum performance parameters for equipment items and packages required to satisfy plant Production Availability targets.
