TY - JOUR
T1 - Mechanical integrity of process installations
T2 - Barrier alarm management based on bowties
AU - Schmitz, Peter
AU - Swuste, Paul
AU - Reniers, Genserik
AU - van Nunen, Karolien
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - A Safety Research project was carried out in an ammonia plant of OCI Nitrogen, located at the Chemelot site in Geleen, The Netherlands. This research focused on the development of a method to monitor accident processes in the chemical industry mainly caused by mechanical integrity of static equipment like vessels, tanks and heat exchangers. A significant part of the mechanical integrity failure scenarios originates from material degradation and corrosion mechanisms which may develop over a relatively long-time period, possibly taking months, years or even longer. Mechanical failure scenarios from two process units have been worked out and visualized using a bowtie. The research project shows that the monitoring of early warnings can provide information about the current development of mechanical failure scenarios. In addition, early warnings can be used to initiate inspections if there is a likelihood that the mechanical failure scenario has been activated. Considering the shift from breakdown maintenance to preventive and predictive maintenance and risk-based inspection (RBI), inspections based on early warnings could also be a new step in the field of maintenance efficiency.
AB - A Safety Research project was carried out in an ammonia plant of OCI Nitrogen, located at the Chemelot site in Geleen, The Netherlands. This research focused on the development of a method to monitor accident processes in the chemical industry mainly caused by mechanical integrity of static equipment like vessels, tanks and heat exchangers. A significant part of the mechanical integrity failure scenarios originates from material degradation and corrosion mechanisms which may develop over a relatively long-time period, possibly taking months, years or even longer. Mechanical failure scenarios from two process units have been worked out and visualized using a bowtie. The research project shows that the monitoring of early warnings can provide information about the current development of mechanical failure scenarios. In addition, early warnings can be used to initiate inspections if there is a likelihood that the mechanical failure scenario has been activated. Considering the shift from breakdown maintenance to preventive and predictive maintenance and risk-based inspection (RBI), inspections based on early warnings could also be a new step in the field of maintenance efficiency.
KW - Ammonia
KW - Bowtie
KW - Integrity
KW - Mechanical failure mechanism
KW - Process safety indicator
KW - Risk-based inspections
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081889523&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psep.2020.03.009
DO - 10.1016/j.psep.2020.03.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081889523
SN - 0957-5820
VL - 138
SP - 139
EP - 147
JO - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
JF - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
ER -