These cover releases of flammable or toxic materials with the potential to cause harm to people or the environment. The mechanisms of release may include vessel explosions, leaks and major fractures, vapour cloud explosions or process upsets such as flaring resulting in thermal radiation hazards or blast overpressure hazards.
ABB has expertise in assisting clients in identifying credible hazardous events, establishing the consequences of the releases using appropriate software tools including DNV’s PHAST and TNO GAMES, thereby determining the hazard ranges, be it thermal radiation, blast overpressure or toxic effects.
Potential on-site and off-site impact of the releases are analysed against the location of the hazard. Consequence assessment is used for various types of study, typically regulatory driven such as COMAH safety reports or Occupied Building Risk Assessments (OBRA), in addition to other forms of risk assessments such as Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), incident investigation, proposed plant modifications and as part of hazard study action close out.