Christian Delvosalle

The Measurement of Heat Release from Oxygen Consumption in Sooty Fires

This paper is a further contribution to the development of practi cal relationships based on oxygen consumption calorimetry to calculate the rate of heat release (RHR) in fires. The measurement of the RHR based on oxygen consumption was promoted in the 1980s. Previous workers introduced and as sessed the significance of adequate correction factors to take into account in completeness of combustion as reflected by carbon monoxide release. This paper focuses on materials releasing large amounts of soot in combustion. Classical oxygen consumption relationships are reviewed to derive adequate calculation procedures integrating the soot contribution. An analysis 1Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sylvain.brohez@fpms. ac.be of the significance of the suggested soot correction factor is discussed through theoretical considerations as well as from results of lab-scale experiments.

Defining safety functions and safety barriers from fault and event trees analysis of major industrial hazards

The prevention of major accident hazard is the main objective of the SEVESO II directive. It relies notably on risk analysis and on the implementation of a safety management system. However, the methodology for risk analysis is not provided by the directive and different approaches are adopted within the European union. The objective of the European project ARAMIS is to build up a new integrated risk assessment method that will be used as a supportive tool to speed up the harmonized implementation of SEVESO II Directive. ARAMIS not only focuses on the identification and evaluation of the risk but also on the vulnerability of the environment by proposing tools to evaluate it and crosses this result with a spatial representation of the accident effect. A last innovative aspect of ARAMIS is to take explicitly the management into account by defining a management index which reduces or increases the global severity of the dreaded scenarios.

ARAMIS Project: Reference Accident Scenarios Definition in SEVESO Establishment

ARAMIS (Accidental Risk Assessment Methodology for IndustrieS) is an European project aiming to build up a new integrated risk assessment method that will be used as a supportive tool to speed up the harmonized implementation of Seveso II Directive. A part of ARAMIS is devoted to the identification of accident scenarios in process industries. First, a Methodology for the Identification of Major Accident Hazards (MIMAH) is defined. According to a bow‐tie approach, the major accidents are identified through generic fault and event trees. The term “Major Accidents” must be understood as the worst accidents likely to occur on an installation, assuming that no safety systems are installed. Second, a Methodology for the Identification of Reference Accident Scenarios (MIRAS) studies the influence of safety systems placed on the branches of generic trees. The deep study of causes of accidents, probability levels, safety systems effectiveness and safety management efficiency allows us to define Reference Accident Scenarios, representing the real hazardous potential of the installation. This approach is intended to give an acute estimation of the risk level and to promote the implementation of safety systems. Test cases were carried out in five companies across Europe in order to validate the application of ARAMIS.

Learning Role-Playing Game Scenario Design for Crisis Management Training: From Pedagogical Targets to Action Incentives

Emergency and crisis management requires, from operatives and decision-makers, specific knowledge that cannot be acquired through theoretical course or real-life practice only [1]. Besides, developing practical exercises adapted for agents and their needs is even more difficult when the system where they operate is complex [2]. It is therefore necessary to develop such exercises according to both rigorous and flexible methodology.