A methodology for the analysis of domino and cascading events in Oil & Gas facilities operating in harsh environments

• Published in: Safety science Vol. 95; pp. 182 - 197
• Main Authors: Landucci, Gabriele, Bonvicini, Sarah, Cozzani, Valerio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Cascading events; Climate; Cold weather; Domino effect; Ecological risk assessment; Emergency preparedness; Emergency procedures; Emergency response; Environmental conditions; Escalation; Event tree analysis; Fire protection; Fires; Hardware; Harsh environment; Harsh environments; Influence; Natural gas; Safety; Safety barriers; Studies; Cascading events; Harsh environment; Fire protection; Domino effect; Safety barriers; Escalation
• ISSN: 0925-7535; 1879-1042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2016.12.019

•Performance of safety barriers for escalation prevention in harsh environment was addressed.•Influence of harsh environment on frequency of domino scenarios was assessed.•A metric to account for external factors due to harsh environment was defined.•Harsh environment significantly affects the performance of safety barriers.•Design of barriers and emergency response are critical to reduce fire escalation probability.
The present study is aimed at defining a structured approach to the quantitative assessment of cascading events triggered by fire, accounting for the influence of harsh environmental conditions on the emergency response and on the performance of hardware safety barriers. A specific metric was defined in order to consider the external factors related to harsh environments on the determination of hardware and emergency safety barriers availability, with a specific focus on operations in extremely cold climates. The metric allows evaluating the time scale of emergency and the related efficiency of barriers in contrasting accident escalation. The values obtained for availability and effectiveness of barriers were input to a specific event tree analysis in order to support the quantitative assessment of accident frequency associated to cascading events. The approach is tested by its application to a case study, aimed at the assessment of the influence of extremely cold environmental conditions on the risk due to cascading events in an industrial site.