SIL determination: Recognising and handling high demand mode scenarios

The International Standards for Functional Safety (IEC 61508 and IEC 61511) are well recognised and have been adopted globally in many of the industrialised countries during the past 10 years or so. Conformance with these standards involves determination of the requirements for instrumented risk reduction measures, described in terms of a safety integrity level (SIL). During this period within the process sector, layer of protection analysis (LOPA) has become the most widely used approach for SIL determination. Experience has identified that there is a type of hazardous event scenario that occurs within the process sector that is not well recognised by practitioners, and is therefore not adequately handled by the standard LOPA approach. This is when the particular scenario places a high demand rate on the required safety instrumented function. This paper will describe how to recognise a high demand rate scenario. It will discuss what the standards have to say about high demand rates. It will then demonstrate how to assess this type of situation and provide a case study example to illustrate how to determine the necessary integrity level. It will conclude by explaining why it is important to treat high demand rate situations in this way and the resulting benefit of a lower but sufficient required integrity level.     

Numerical study of the effects of Planetary Boundary Layer structure on the pollutant dispersion within built-up areas

The effects of different Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) structures on pollutant dispersion processes within two idealized street canyon configurations and a realistic urban area were numerically examined by a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. The boundary conditions of different PBL structures/conditions were provided by simulations of the Weather Researching and Forecasting model. The simulated results of the idealized 2D and 3D street canyon experiments showed that the increment of PBL instability favored the downward transport of momentum from the upper flow above the roof to the pedestrian level within the street canyon. As a result, the flow and turbulent fields within the street canyon under the more unstable PBL condition are stronger. Therefore, more pollutants within the street canyon would be removed by the stronger advection and turbulent diffusion processes under the unstable PBL condition. On the contrary, more pollutants would be concentrated in the street canyon under the stable PBL condition. In addition, the simulations of the realistic building cluster experiments showed that the density of buildings was a crucial factor determining the dynamic effects of the PBL structure on the flow patterns. The momentum field within a denser building configuration was mostly transported from the upper flow, and was more sensitive to the PBL structures than that of the sparser building configuration. Finally, it was recommended to use the Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino (MYNN) PBL scheme, which can explicitly output the needed turbulent variables, to provide the boundary conditions to the CFD simulation.     

Advanced process control system with MPC as a new approach for layer of protection analysis

Layer of protection analysis (LOPA) is a widely used method to support process safety in the chemical industries. In the LOPA, the process is classified into many layers, one of such layers considers the basic process control system (BPCS) which commonly uses PID controllers. This kind of controllers cannot deal with constraints. For this reason, the main purpose of this work is to provide a framework to enhance the control layer in the LOPA, which consists of a model predictive control (MPC) with safety features. These features include: sublayers in the controller system (such as real time optimization, target calculation, and MPC), safety constraints, and guarantee of stability by adopting an Infinite Horizon MPC (IHMPC). Here, we propose an approach for control-inspired view to process safety, replacing the BPCS by an Advanced Process Control System (APCS). Moving forward with these concepts, first, a literature review emphasizes the content, showing two perspectives for the APCS. The APCS is designed for two varieties of controllers, a basic IHMPC and IHMPC with zone control to compare the performance. In this framework, the first sublayer consists of a real time optimization (RTO) structure, that calculates the optimal operating condition for the process controller, which computes the control action. Besides, RTO has an additional constraint called the safety index, based on the protection of process operational. RTO and basic IHMPC communicate directly, while for IHMPC with zone control there is an inner sublayer called Target Calculation, it computes a feasible target to the controller, working as another safety strategy in APCS. After that, we demonstrate both structures applied to a CSTR reactor. From the case study, we compared both controllers, and evaluated the effect that the safety index constraint causes in the setpoints, outputs, and control actions. The use of safety constraint in RTO proved to be a safe strategy for the control layer, as well as IHMPC with zone control presented a safer profile than basic IHMPC. Furthermore, the results show that safety constraint affect the economic goal, decreasing its value.     

Effect of potential HONO sources on peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) formation in eastern China in winter

As an important secondary photochemical pollutant, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) has been studied over decades, yet its simulations usually underestimate the corresponding observations, especially in polluted areas. Recent observations in north China found unusually high concentrations of PAN during wintertime heavy haze events, but the current model still cannot reproduce the observations, and researchers speculated that nitrous acid (HONO) played a key role in PAN formation. For the first time we systematically assessed the impact of potential HONO sources on PAN formation mechanisms in eastern China using the Weather Research and Forecasting/Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model in February of 2017. The results showed that the potential HONO sources significantly improved the PAN simulations, remarkably accelerated the RO_x (sum of hydroxyl, hydroperoxyl, and organic peroxy radicals) cycles, and resulted in 80%–150% enhancements of PAN near the ground in the coastal areas of eastern China and 10%–50% enhancements in the areas around 35–40°N within 3 km during a heavy haze period. The direct precursors of PAN were aldehyde and methylglyoxal, and the primary precursors of PAN were alkenes with C > 3, xylenes, propene and toluene. The above results suggest that the potential HONO sources should be considered in regional and global chemical transport models when conducting PAN studies.     

朝阳地区大气扩散参数计算分析

利用朝阳西大营地区野外平衡球观测资料计算得出了一套大气扩散参数,并将该结果与其它扩散参数进行了比较,结果表明:在不同的稳定度下,朝阳西大营地区的σy和σz值均略大于同级Briggs公式给出的结果,但小于地形相对复杂的本溪地区。     

提高大型锌合金成形模具精度并降低成本的工艺措施

结合制模工艺实践,提出并分析了提高大型锌合金模具精度并降低成本的一些工艺因素,介绍了设计方案和工艺措施,并对实际效果进行了讨论.     

层次性通风网络平衡图的自动生成

风网平衡图是矿井通风管理的一种重要手段。笔者首次创造性的提出层次性的风网平衡图 ,把风网平衡图做成一个具有层次图形显示、连续双向查询、自动优化网络、数据管理的图形数据库。利用VLISP语言在AutoCAD平台上开发一套矿井通风平衡图的层次性生成及优化软件 ,可以扩展AutoCAD的数据接口、充分发挥它的图形功能、数据管理功能 ,使通风网络平衡图成为一个具有自动优化功能的数据库系统。软件具有可视化、自动风网优化、数据管理、效率高的特点     

Minimum ignition energy theoretical model for flammable gas based on flame propagation layer by layer

To achieve the rapid prediction of minimum ignition energy (MIE) for premixed gases with wide-span equivalence ratios, a theoretical model is developed based on the proposed idea of flame propagation layer by layer. The validity and high accuracy of this model in predicting MIE have been corroborated against experimental data (from literature) and traditional models. In comparison, this model is mainly applicable to uniform premixed flammable mixtures, and the ignition source needs to be regarded as a punctiform energy source. Nevertheless, this model can exhibit higher accuracy (up to 90%) than traditional models when applied to premixed gases with wide-span equivalence ratios, such as C₃H₈-air mixtures with 0.7–1.5 equivalence ratios, CH₄-air mixtures with 0.7–1.25 equivalence ratios, H₂-air mixtures with 0.6–3.15 equivalence ratios et al. Further, the model parameters have been pre-determined using a 20 L spherical closed explosion setup with a high-speed camera, and then the MIE of common flammable gases (CH₄, C₂H₆, C₃H₈, C₄H₁₀, C₂H₄, C₃H₆, C₂H₂, C₃H₄, C₂H₆O, CO and H₂) under stoichiometric or wide-span equivalence ratios has been calculated. Eventually, the influences of model parameters on MIE have been discussed. Results show that MIE is the sum of the energy required for flame propagation during ignition. The increase in exothermic and heat transfer efficiency for fuel molecules can reduce MIE, whereas prolonging the flame induction period can increase MIE.     

Meteorological and pedological influence on the PCBs distribution in mountain soils

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a threat to environmental and human health due to their persistence and toxicological effects. In this paper, we analyse some meteorological and organic-matter-related effects on their distribution in the soils of an Alpine environment that is not subject to direct contamination. We collected samples and measured the contamination of 12 selected congeners from three soil layers (O, A1 and A2) and from North-, plain- and South-facing slopes on six different dates spanning the entire snowless portion of the year. We recorded the hourly air and soil temperatures, humidity and rainfall in the study period. We found evidence that PCBs contamination in soils varies significantly, depending on sampling date, layer and aspect. The observed seasonal trend shows an early summer peak and a rapid decrease during June. The layer effect demonstrates higher dry-weight-based concentrations in the O layer, whereas the differences are much smaller for SOM-based concentrations. Different factors caused significantly higher concentrations in northern soils, with a N/S enrichment factor ranging from 1.8 to 1.5 during the season. The southern site has significantly more rapid early-summer re-volatilisation kinetics (half-time of 16 d for South, 25 d for North).     

Resilience-based approach to safety barrier performance assessment in process facilities

The performance assessment of safety barriers is essential to find vulnerable elements in a safety barrier system. Traditional performance assessment approaches mainly focus on using several static indicators for quantifying the performance of safety barriers. However, with the increasing complexity of the system, emerging hazards are highly uncertain, making it challenging for the static indicators to assess the performance of safety barriers. This paper proposes a resilience−based performance assessment method for safety barriers to overcome this problem. Safety barriers are classified according to their functions first. The dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is then introduced to calculate the availability function under normal and disruption conditions. The ratio of the system's availability, when affected by the disruption, to the initial availability, is used to determine the absorption capacity of the system. The ratio of the quantity of availability recovery to the total quantity of system represents the adaptation and restoration capacity of the system. The system's resilience is represented by the sum of absorption, adaptation, and restoration capacities. The wax oil hydrogenation process is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology.