Association analysis of accident factors in petrochemical storage tank farms

Association analysis of accident factors in petrochemical storage tank farms

Liu, Zhihao (Guangdong University of Technology)
Zhou, Jianfeng (Guangdong University of Technology)
Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (TU Delft Safety and Security Science; Universiteit Antwerpen; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

2023

In order to identify and clarify the association between the factors leading to accidents in a petrochemical tank area, this study analyzes investigation reports of 212 petrochemical tank farm accidents and combines this with the “association rule” mining and science related to complex networks. The main risk factors are determined and a risk factor data set is constructed; 75 association rules are extracted from the factor data set based on the Apriori algorithm. Then the obtained association rules are used to construct an accident factors network of the petrochemical storage tank area, and the topology characteristics of the network are further analyzed to reveal the importance of factors. Factors with large node degree, betweenness, and clustering coefficients are obtained, such as “violation of operating regulations”, “high concentration of flammable gas in the air”, “lack of experience and professional skills”, etc. These factors play an important role in the formation and development of accidents. The results also show that the accident cause network of the petrochemical storage tank area has a small average shortest path length and a large cluster coefficient, indicating a relatively close connection between the accident factors. The contributions of this study is not only extracting the hidden relationships among contributory factors to tank farm accidents using association analysis, but also revealing which factors are more important for the tank farm safety through the complex network.

Association rule mining
Complex networks
Important accident factors
Tank farm accidents

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:43d6ac40-1fff-4a8e-8864-7920731468a2

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2023.105124

2023-12-14

0950-4230

Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries: the international journal of chemical and process plant safety, 84

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

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© 2023 Zhihao Liu, Jianfeng Zhou, G.L.L.M.E. Reniers