Improve the design of fire emergency relief systems

Journal Article · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995 · Chemical Engineering Progress

OSTI ID:160798

Stickles, R P; Melhem, G A; Eckhardt, D R

In recognition of the potential severe consequences of a process vessel rupture under fire exposure, industry codes such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 30 and the American Petroleum Institute (API) Standard 2000 have been established for the specification of emergency relief systems (ERSs). The intent is to reduce the risk of human injury and asset losses associated with process plant fires. These codes are largely prescriptive in nature. That is, they provide specific details on how to achieve safe design. Prescriptive standards are easy to apply, because they are simplified approaches which generally apply to many (but not all) situations. But they also have limitations, including the tendency to result in, at best, suboptimal (overly conservative) designs, and in some instances potentially unsafe designs. As the fire community moves toward performance-based standards for building protection, perhaps it is time to consider a similar approach for vessel protection in a fire. The design issues addressed in this article include: Use of heat input based on actual fuel burning rate, heat of combustion, and flame emissive power, vs. NFPA 30 and API 2000 heat-input equations; Effect of drainage (from vessel to sump) on fire duration, rather than heat input; Use of risk assessment to determine the relative frequency of fire and process-induced incidents; and design for containment, rather than vessel protection when fire probability is low

• OSTI ID: 160798
• Journal Information: Chemical Engineering Progress, Journal Name: Chemical Engineering Progress Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 91; ISSN 0360-7275; ISSN CEPRA8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
EMERGENCY PLANS
FIRE HAZARDS
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PRESSURE VESSELS
RUPTURES
SAFETY ANALYSIS
SAFETY ENGINEERING
SAFETY STANDARDS