Offshore oil and gas platforms are well known for their compact geometry, high degree of congestion, limited ventilation and difficult escape routes. A small mishap under such conditions can quickly escalate into a catastrophe. Among all the accidental process-related events occurring offshore, fire is the most frequently reported. It is, therefore, necessary to study the behavior of fires and quantity the hazards posed by them in order to complete a detailed quantitative risk assessment. While there are many consequence models available to predict fire hazards-varying from point source models to highly complex computational fluid dynamic models—only a few have been validated for the unique conditions found offshore.
In this paper, we have considered fire consequence modeling as a suite of sub-models such as individual fire models, radiation model, overpressure model, smoke and toxicity models and human impact models. This comprehensive suite of models was then revised by making the following modifications: (i) fire models: existing fire models have been reviewed and the ones most suitable for offshore conditions were selected; (ii) overpressure impact model: a model has been developed to quantify the overpressure effects from fires to investigate the possible damage from the hot combustion gases released in highly confined compartments; (iii) radiation model: instead of a point/area model, a multipoint grid-based model has been adopted for better modeling and analysis of radiation heat flux consequences. A comparison of the performance of the revised models with the ones used in a commercial software package for offshore risk assessment was also carried out and is discussed in the paper. 相似文献
Human factors play an indispensable role in process safety during fire risk process. Fire evacuation of underground comprehensive buildings is a critical consideration for practical importance. Here, evacuation experiments were conducted in the Guangzhou East Railway Station Plaza, a large underground comprehensive building in Guangdong, China, with the plaza occupants as the participants. The evacuation factors, namely evacuation time and evacuee-selected evacuation routes, were evaluated using empirical equations (the Togawa model and the Melinek and Booth model) and evacuation modelling software (EVACNET 4 and composite occupant evacuation model). The experimental data were used to verify the empirical equations and evacuation models and to modify specific empirical parameters. The effect on escape route judgement and selection under emergency situations was analysed. The results demonstrated that direct access to outdoor exits could considerably reduce evacuation time. The experimental N and ts were 1 person/m·s and 28 s, respectively. The total evacuation time was 281 s, and the EVACNET 4 and composite models’ simulations of safe evacuation were 285–290 s, which was consistent with the experimental data—validating the high accuracy and applicability of the models. 相似文献