Process safety management lessons learned from a fire and explosion accident caused by a liquefied petroleum gas leak in an aromatics reforming unit in Taiwan

A severe fire and explosion accident was caused by a liquefied petroleum gas leak in Taiwan in 2019. This accident resulted in the loss of approximately US$3.5 billion in output value due to a one-and-a-half-year shutdown after the accident; however, no casualties were recorded at the accident scene. An analysis of the accident pipelines demonstrated that the pipeline leak had been caused by hydrochloric acid corrosion. Cause analysis based on the accident timeline, fault tree analysis, and causal factor charting indicated inadequacies in five elements of process safety management (PSM) namely mechanical integrity (MI), management of change, emergency planning and response, process hazard analysis (PHA), and process safety information (PSI) as the root causes of the accident. Furthermore, insufficient PSI (i.e., a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding corrosion mechanisms) was deemed to have been the core problem leading to the accident. This accident revealed common shortcomings that are often overlooked in PSM implementation in Taiwan; thus, the present research can serve as a vital reference for improving PSM programs in Taiwan.     

边坡振动台模型实验动位移的加速度时程积分探讨

受数据采集条件限制,振动台模型实验的速度和动位移时程一般由实测加速度时程信号进行积分得到。通过理论分析和实验实测数据计算,认为动位移的频域积分法误差来源是低频截止频率的选取,特别当低频频率接近零时,传统二阶频域积分可产生较大的动位移低频振荡和峰值误差。提出利用时域与频域混合的方法,即频域-时域混合积分法,来克服积分过程带来的误差,其在对加速度两次积分中,分别进行一次频域积分和一次时域积分。地震模拟振动实验的台面实测加速度数据积分与台面动位移计实测数据的对比表明,较之传统的二阶频域积分,采用频域-时域混合积分时误差可明显减小。