Joint analysis of process and operator performance in chemical process operational safety

Diagnosis of Abnormal Situations in a Continuous Solution Polymerization Reactor

“…Industrial statistics pointed that between 40 and 80% of accidents in chemical process industries are caused by operator errors. [2] An accepted viewpoint is that all the accidents are caused by a human being either by the design organization, which has not designed the system to be safe enough, or by the operation organization, which has not been able to handle the abnormal situation. [3] Although industrial statistics have shown that catastrophic accidents from chemical plants are infrequent and represent extreme cases within the spectrum of major abnormal situations, minor accidents are very common, occurring on a day-to-day basis.…”

Nonlinear Detection and Isolation of Multiple Faults Using Residuals Modeling

“…Fault detection and isolation (FDI) systems play an important role in increasing plant availability and reducing the risk of safety hazards, thereby avoiding economic loss. , An FDI system is defined as a system capable of completing the following functions: − Fault detection through which its main function is to determine if there are faults or abnormal conditions in the system as well as detecting the time when the fault occurred. The performance of a fault detection system can be evaluated based on the following criteria: , (1) fault sensitivity, which refers to the ability to detect faults of a reasonably small size; (2) prompt detection, which is defined as the ability to detect faults with a small delay after their arrival; (3) robustness, which is related to the capability of the detection system to operate in the presence of noise, disturbances, and modeling errors with a low false alarm rate. Fault isolation whereby the kind and location of the fault are determined.…”