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A risk-based fuzzy arithmetic model to determine safety integrity levels considering individual and societal risks

Cheraghi, Morteza (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Eslami Baladeh, Aliakbar (author), Khakzad, Nima (author), Taghipour, Sharareh (author)

Risk-based techniques such as risk graph and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) are used to determine the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) of safety instrumented functions to ensure that risk is reduced to a tolerable level. However, these techniques have some drawbacks. For instance, they need absolute and precise numbers to evaluate SIL...

journal article 2024

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An agent-based resilience model of oil tank farms exposed to earthquakes

Tan, Xinxin (author), Xiao, Shenbin (author), Yang, Yu (author), Khakzad, Nima (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Chen, Chao (author)

Frequent unpredictable earthquake disasters such as the Turkey Earthquake in 2023 pose an increasing threat to oil tank farms since they may trigger major accidents and domino effects, resulting in casualties, economic losses, and environmental pollution. Unpredictable earthquakes are definitely difficult to prevent and thus resilience...

journal article 2024

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Optimization of firefighting strategies in process plants with emphasis on domino effects and safe evacuation

Khakzad, Nima (author), Chen, Chao (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Amyotte, Paul (author)

Effective firefighting and evacuation are integral parts of emergency response plans in process plants, which play a key role in protecting human lives and assets in the event of major fires. Given sufficient firefighting resources, firefighters would suppress all the burning vessels and cool off all the exposed vessels in order to contain the...

journal article 2023

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An Approach to Update the Failure Rates of Safety Barriers Based on Operating Experience

Lee, Shenae (author), Khakzad, Nima (author), Schmitz, P.J.H. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Habrekke, Solfrid (author), Paltrinieri, Nicola (author)

Hazardous events in process plants like the leakage of dangerous substances can result in severe damage, and such an event is often defined as the TOP event of a fault tree analysis (FTA) in a quantitative risk analysis. The TOP event probability can then be calculated if the basic events probabilities are provided. These probabilities are often...

journal article 2022

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Operational safety economics: Foundations, current approaches and paths for future research

Chen, C. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, Nima (author), Yang, M. (author)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the trade-off between economics and epidemic prevention (safety) has become painfully clear worldwide. This situation thus highlights the significance of balancing the economy with safety and health. Safety economics, considering the interdependencies between safety and micro-economics, is ideal for...

journal article 2021

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Domino effects in chemical factories and clusters, risk in the eye of the beholder: An historical perspective and discussion

Swuste, P.H.J.J. (author), van Nunen, K.L.L. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, N. (author)

Major accidents in Western countries, receiving a lot of media attention in the 1970s, are starting point for research into internal and external domino effects in the chemical and petrochemical sectors and clusters. Initially, these reports are published by government institutions and government-related research centers. With the upcoming...

book chapter 2021

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Dynamic vulnerability assessment of process plants with respect to vapor cloud explosions

Chen, C. (author), Khakzad, Nima (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

Vapor cloud explosion (VCE) accidents in recent years such as the Buncefield accident in 2005 indicate that VCEs in process plants may lead to unpredicted overpressures, resulting in catastrophic disasters. Although a lot of attempts have been done to assess VCEs in process plants, little attention has been paid to the spatial-temporal...

journal article 2020

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What safety models and principles can be adapted and used in security science?

Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Landucci, G. (author), Khakzad, Nima (author)

Engineering risk management is comprised of managing operational safety risks on the one hand and managing physical security risks on the other. Although some basic management principles are obviously the same for both safety and security, some important conceptual and calculation differences exist, as is explained in this paper. For instance...

journal article 2020

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A dynamic multi-agent approach for modeling the evolution of multi-hazard accident scenarios in chemical plants

Chen, C. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, Nima (author)

In the chemical industry, multi-hazard (toxic, flammable, and explosive) materials such as acrylonitrile are stored, transported, and processed in large quantities. A release of multi-hazard materials can simultaneously or sequentially lead to acute toxicity, fire and explosion. The spatial-temporal evolution of hazards may also result in...

journal article 2020

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Resilience-based optimal firefighting to prevent domino effects in process plants

Cincotta, Salvatore (author), Khakzad, N. (author), Cozzani, Valerio (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

Domino effects triggered by fire can cause extremely severe damages to the chemical and process plants. In the need of a more effective prevention of fire domino effects, the present study focuses on firefighting which has received less attention compared to passive and active fire protection systems. Considering both the vulnerability and...

journal article 2019

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Safety Assessment of Process Systems using Fuzzy Extended Bow Tie (FEBT) Model

Zarei, Esmaeil (author), Yazdi, Mohammad (author), Khakzad, N. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

Risk analysis in process systems is very important to design effective strategies for preventing and mitigating potential major accidents. Although conventional techniques as Bow-tie (BT) have widely been used in risk assessment of process systems, they fall short in effectively modelling epistemic uncertainty which is prevailing in risk...

journal article 2019

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Exploring loading and unloading operations in relation to domino effects in chemical industrial parks

Chen, C. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, N. (author)

Past accident surveys reveal that loading and unloading operations (LUOs) are responsible for 11% of fire-related domino accidents. This study investigates the domino accidents during LUOs in the last two decades and identifies the main causes and features of these domino effects. An index-based approach is proposed to assess these domino...

journal article 2019

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Domino effects in chemical factories and clusters: An historical perspective and discussion

Swuste, P.H.J.J. (author), van Nunen, K. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, N. (author)

Major accidents in Western countries, receiving a lot of media attention in the 1970s, are starting point for research into internal and external domino effects in the chemical and petrochemical sectors and clusters. Initially, these reports are published by government institutions and government-related research centres. With the upcoming...

review 2019

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Cost-effective fire protection of chemical plants against domino effects

Khakzad, N. (author), Landucci, Gabriele (author), Cozzani, Valerio (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Pasman, HJ (author)

The propagation of fire-induced domino effects in chemical plants largely depends on the primary fire scenario, on separation distances between the units, and on the presence of fire protection barriers. Passive and active safety barriers are widely employed to prevent or delay the initiation or propagation of domino effects. In the present...

journal article 2018

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Applying agent based modelling and simulation for domino effect assessment in the chemical industries

Zhang, L. (author), Landucci, Gabriele (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Ovidi, Federica (author), Khakzad, N. (author), Zhou, Jianfeng (author)

The propagation of accidents among process units may cause amplification of accident magnitude, resulting in a domino effect chain. Several catastrophic accidents occurred in the process and chemical industry presented these features. Hence, research efforts have been given to the analysis of the domino effects in order to enhance prevention...

book chapter 2018

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Security management of process plants by a Bayesian network methodology

Misuri, Alessio (author), Khakzad, N. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Cozzani, Valerio (author)

Before the tragedy of 9/11, the perception of risk in process plants was mainly focused on accidental events caused by technical failures, human errors or natural events. However, since then, the risk of deliberate actions against process facilities - also known as security risk - has also become a concern. Security risk assessment of...

book chapter 2018

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An emergency response decision matrix against terrorist attacks with improvised device in chemical clusters

Hosseinnia Davatgar, B. (author), Khakzad, N. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

Chemical industrial areas may constitute potential targets for deliberate actions by terrorists. Terrorists having sufficient knowledge of chemical process operations or plant layout may take advantage of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to cause major events such as fire, explosion and toxic gas dispersion with cross-border consequences...

journal article 2018

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Security risk assessment and management in chemical plants: Challenges and new trends

Khakzad, N. (author), Martinez, Imee Su (author), Kwon, Hyuk-Myun (author), Stewart, Constantine (author), Perera, Rohan (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

he present study is to point out the outcomes of the Sem-inar on the Chemical Weapon Convention and Chemical Safety and Security Management for Member States in the Asia Region held by Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Doha, Qatar, in February 2017. The seminar was aimed at supporting chemical safety and secu-rity (CSS)...

journal article 2017

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Revolutionizing safety and security in the chemical and process industry: applying the CHESS concept

Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author), Khakzad, N. (author)

This paper argues that a new concept, summarized as ‘CHESS’, should be used in the chemical industry to further substantially advance safety (where we use the term in a broad sense, that is, safety and physical security, amongst others). The different domains that need to be focused upon, and where innovative initiatives should be taken are...

journal article 2017

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Application of dynamic Bayesian network to performance assessment of fire protection systems during domino effects

Khakzad, N. (author), Landucci, G. (author), Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (author)

The propagation of fire in chemical plants – also known as fire domino effects - largely depends on the performance of add-on passive and active protection systems such as sprinkler systems, water deluge systems, emergency shut down and emergency blow down systems, fireproofing, and emergency response. Although such safety barriers are widely...

journal article 2017