Damage domains of chemically reacting industrial facilities. An adequate identification model for Bhopal‐like scenarios

Abstract

This paper focuses on the improvement of solutions to some of the problems that arise in chemical and petrochemical risk assessment studies, namely those associated with potentially undue grouping in sequences of events, caused by different time evolutions. It provides an adequate work‐horse simulation model of risky scenarios able to explore a large amount of transients at a reasonable and viable cost. It is specifically suitable for the transfer of modern dynamic reliability techniques, originated in the nuclear domain, to the chemical engineering environment. As an application, it presents results of a case study to analyse Bhopal‐like scenarios. We found the model adequate to discriminate and filter out the myriad of success scenarios expected in well‐protected installations, screening necessary to focus the risk studies on damage situations. © 2011 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.