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Major industrial accidents Eric Marsden - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Major industrial accidents Eric Marsden <eric.marsden@risk-engineering.org> Learning from the gifu of failure Tiese slides contain brief descriptions of a number of major industrial accidents together with the lessons learned

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Major industrial accidents

Eric Marsden

<eric.marsden@risk-engineering.org>

Learning from the “gifu of failure”

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Learning objectives

▷ Tiese slides contain brief descriptions of a number of major industrial

accidents

  • together with the lessons learned from the investigation

▷ Learning from experience is a major source for safety improvement

  • the “gifu of failure” [B. Wilpert]

▷ We focus on accidents where the technical/technological contribution

was signifjcant

  • many major accidents have causal factors that are primarily organizational (not

the focus of this module)

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Manufacturing gunpowder

▷ Gunpowder (“black powder”) is the oldest known

explosive

  • mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate

(saltpeter)

  • invented in China in 9th century

▷ Its production and storage are perhaps the fjrst

hazardous industrial activity

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SLIDE 4

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Hazardous!

A very hazardous product!

▷ many accidents during production, transport, storage

Lessons learned:

▷ locate production and storage far from urbanized areas ▷ use multiple small facilities so that fewer workers killed in each

explosion

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Toulouse in ∼ 1680

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A gunpowder factory in Toulouse

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Île du Ramier, Toulouse

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Grenelle (Paris): a large gunpowder factory with 2000 workers

▷ production pressure from revolutionary

government: new production methods, manufacturing sites located near urban Paris

▷ new management increases production

density 1794: 1000 people killed by explosion

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SLIDE 11

1906: Courrières mine disaster (France)

▷ 1099 miners killed by a coal dust explosion

  • worst industrial accident in French history

▷ Lessons learned:

  • introduction of explosion barriers
  • use of safety lamps
  • creation of specially trained emergency teams

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Titanic (1912)

▷ British passenger liner that sank in the Atlantic afuer

colliding with iceberg

  • largest ship in the world at the time

▷ More than 1500 passengers and crew killed ▷ Many died due to lack of suffjcient lifeboats

  • and lifeboats launched before they were full (706 people

saved, 1200 person capacity)

New York Queenstown Cherbourg Southampton Titanic

Person Car Bus Airbus A380 RMS Titanic

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Titanic: contributing factors

▷ Designer hubris

  • ship described as “practically unsinkable”
  • hull with 16 “watertight” compartments with remotely

controllable doors

  • in fact, water could fmow in via the roof of each

compartment ▷ Operator hubris

  • ship did not slow down afuer being warned of presence of

icebergs

  • lifeboat capacity for only one third of ship’s capacity

(outdated regulations)

  • inadequate training on evacuation

Hubris: excessive pride & confidence

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Titanic: contributing factors

▷ Badly built with low quality rivets

  • iron rivets instead of steel in some sections
  • many large ships under construction simultaneously:

shortage of quality rivets

  • pressure to fjnish the ship on time

▷ Inadequate regulations

  • very large ships: number of lifeboats required not a

function of passenger capacity

  • no requirement to build double hull

▷ Poor organization of emergency response

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Titanic: lessons (re)learned

▷ Defence in depth

  • prevention does not eliminate the need for mitigation

▷ Regulations must be updated to follow technological progress ▷ Improved emergency communication

  • creation of International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea

(SOLAS)

  • 24-hour radio watch on ships, secondary power supply for radios

▷ Addition of double hulls

  • Titanic had a double botuom but no side protection (heavy,

expensive)

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BLEVE at Feyzin (1966)

▷ Operator was sampling from a pressurized propane

sphere (quality control)

▷ Mistake in order of valve opening leads to frozen valve

and propane leak

▷ Car passing on nearby road ignited cloud ▷ Leak from sampling line ignited ▷ BLEVE of the tank ▷ Domino efgect to other nearby spheres and oil tanks

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liquid phase gas phase

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Fuels such as butane and propane are generally stored as pressurized liquids at a temperature higher than their boiling point. Typical pressures: 17 bar (1700 kPa).

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An initial event (ofuen a jet fjre) leads to heat impinging on the storage vessel. Pressure inside the tank increases. Tie liquid in the tank cools down the metal in the lower part of the vessel, but the upper part of the tank may become weaker due to heat.

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Tie vessel fails, initially with

  • nly a small hole.

Gas leaks from the hole, rapidly lowering the pressure inside the tank. Tie liquefjed gas boils violently (its boiling point is pressure-dependent).

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BLEVE: Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion Tie boiling liquid vapourizes, increasing pressure in the vessel and ripping it open. A huge volume of gas is ejected into the atmosphere. Massive blast. If material is fmammable, a huge fjreball forms with massive heat radiation.

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BLEVE afuer train derailment in Casselton, North Dakota (2013)

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BLEVE: explanatory video

Explanatory video: youtu.be/UM0jtD_OWLU

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Feyzin: BLEVE efgects

▷ 18 people killed, extensive damage ▷ 48 hours to put out blaze ▷ Missiles ejected 700 m away ▷ One 48 tonne element ejected 325 m

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BLEVE at Feyzin: lessons

▷ Protect tanks from impinging heat

  • insulation, sprinklers

▷ Site layout to avoid domino efgects ▷ Protect fjrefjghters ▷ Manage urbanization around high-hazard industrial

sites

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Mètres

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R4 r1 b1 R4 r1 b1 B1 R1 B2 R2 R3 Plan de Prévention des Risques Technologiques ZONAGE BRUT Société HERAKLES SAFRAN à Toulouse (31) Affaire n° : 4330940 05/2012 Réalisation : KTl Contrôle : Avn

toxique_TF+ R4 toxique_TF+ R3 toxique_TF+ R2 surpression_Fai, toxique_TF+ R1 toxique_F+ r1 toxique_M+ B2 surpression_Fai, toxique_M+ B1 toxique_M b1 Emprise HERAKLES SAFRAN Périmètre d'étude Légende :

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Piper Alpha

Watch the video: youtu.be/tPA_6oEgc1s

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Explosion at Caribbean Petroleum, Puerto Rico

us csb safety video Filling blind, 2015

Watch the video: youtu.be/41QMaJqxqIo

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Lac Mégantic derailment

Canadian TSB animation on the 2013 derailment and fjre Watch the video: youtu.be/wVMNspPc8Zc

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Image credits

▷ Gunpowder (slide 2): Mondebleu, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons ▷ Illustration of Courrières accident (slide 10): public domain, via Wikimedia

Commons

▷ Titanic to scale (slide 11): CC BY-SA licence, via Wikimedia Commons For more free content on risk engineering, visit risk-engineering.org

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Feedback welcome!

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  • materials. Tianks!

@LearnRiskEng fb.me/RiskEngineering This presentation is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Aturibution – Share Alike licence

For more free content on risk engineering, visit risk-engineering.org

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