Chemical Accident Simulation Tool (CAST): A System for Assessing Consequences of Accidents in Chemical Process Industry
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TECHNICAL ARTICLE—PEER-REVIEWED
Chemical Accident Simulation Tool (CAST): A System for Assessing Consequences of Accidents in Chemical Process Industry S. M. Tauseef . R. Suganya . Tasneem Abbasi . S. A. Abbasi
Submitted: 9 November 2017 / in revised form: 23 December 2017 ASM International 2018
Abstract The development and validation of a new software named chemical accident simulation tool (CAST) is presented. CAST enables development of scenarios of different types of accidental fires and explosions that can occur in chemical process industry (CPI). CAST is also capable of assessing the likely consequences of such accidents in terms of the area impacted and the types of impacts. The distinguishing features of CAST are (a) it incorporates a larger set of established models than handled by existing packages to simulate a wider variety of accidents in CPI; (b) it is developed with an integrated mapping tool to display damage zones around accident center; this makes the application useful in decision making; and (c) it calculates the results in a fast and reliable manner. Due to these attributes, CAST has increased efficiency, better understanding of the accident scenarios, and better communication of results. Validation of the software has been done with published results which shows that the codes for calculating the impacts from accidents are correct. Keywords Chemical process industry Explosion Fire Accident scenarios Consequence assessment Accident simulation tool
S. M. Tauseef Environmental Research Institute, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun 248 007, India R. Suganya T. Abbasi (&) S. A. Abbasi Centre for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering, Pondicherry University, Chinakalapet, Puducherry 605 014, India e-mail: [email protected] S. A. Abbasi e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Chemical process industries (CPI)—which often handle flammable, and/or toxic substances at different-than-normal temperatures and/or pressures—are vulnerable to accidents [5, 21, 22]. These accidents can lead to fires, explosions, and toxic releases—singly or in combinations [15–20, 23, 24]. Quite often an initial fire or explosion sets off newer fires and/or explosions, thereby exacerbating the initial accident and building it into a catastrophe [22–31]. This likelihood of the occurrence of ‘domino effect’ makes risk management in CPI especially challenging [6, 7]. As we have learned from the experience of the accidents of the kind that have occurred at Feyzin in 1966, Mexico City and Bhopal in 1984, Buncefield and BP Refinery in 2005, Jaipur in 2009, and BP Offshore rig in 2010, these accidents not only kill or maim a large number of people and cause losses worth billions of rupees every time, but also inflict incalculable harm on the environment [5, 32, 35]. Given the increasing frequency as well as severity of process industry accidents [1–5], it is necessary that risk of likely accidents are assessed for all industries handling hazardous chemicals and/or processes s
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