• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.637-651
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• 2019

In the event of a major accident such as an explosion in a refinery or a petrochemical plant, it has caused a serious loss of life and property and has had a great impact on the insurance market. In the case of catastrophic incidents occurring in process industries such as refinery and petrochemical plants, only the proximate causes of loss have been drawn and studied from inspectors or claims adjustors responsible for claims of property insurers, incident cause investigators, and national forensic service workers. However, it has not been done well for conducting root cause analysis (RCA) and identifying the factors that contributed to the failure and establishing preventive measures before leading to chemical plant's catastrophic incidents. In this study, the criteria of warning signs on CCPS catastrophic incident waning sign self-assessment tool which was derived through the RCA method and the contribution factor analysis method using the swiss cheese model principle has been reviewed first. Secondly, in order to determine the major incident warning signs in an actual chemical plant, 614 recommendations which have been issued during last the 17 years by loss control engineers of global reinsurers were analyzed. Finally, in order to facilitate the assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs, the criteria for the catastrophic incident warning sign index at chemical plants were grouped by type and classified into upper category and lower category. Then, a catastrophic incident warning sign index for a chemical plant was developed using the weighted values of each category derived by applying the analytic hierarchy process (pairwise comparison method) through a questionnaire answered by relevant experts of the chemical plant. It is expected that the final 'assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs' can be utilized by the refinery and petrochemical plant's internal as well as external auditors to assess vulnerability levels related to incident warning signs, and identify the elements of incident warning signs that need to be tracked and managed to prevent the occurrence of serious incidents in the future.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.958-967
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the fire resistance performance applied to plant facilities with high fire risk in Korea, secure suitable fire resistance performance, and ensure the fire safety of plant facilities. Method: Using the finite element analysis program Ansys, thermal transfer analysis and structural analysis were performed with fire load and fireproof coating as variables, and the fire resistance performance of plant facilities was analyzed based on the analysis results. Result: The fireproof coating applied to domestic plant facilities failed to secure fire resistance performance when the fire load of hydrocarbon fire presented in UL 1709 was applied, and it was confirmed that the deformation of steel after the fire was also significant. Conclusion: The current fire resistance performance applied to plant facilities in Korea cannot secure fire resistance performance in sudden fire growth and large fire loads like petrochemical plants, and it is necessary to secure fire safety by evaluating suitable fire resistance performance through performance evaluation of plant facilities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.3755-3760
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• 2009

In this study, we have completed the simulation and optimization work for the deethanizer column which was used for natural gas processing plant or saturated gas plant in a petrochemical process. An optimal feed stage location which minimizes the reboiler heat duty was determined. For the modeling of deethanizer, PRO/II with PROVISION was used and Soave modified Redlich-Kwong equation of state model was selected. Through this study, we have found that the minimum number of stage and minimum reflux ratio for separation were 9.03 and 0.62437, respectively and the theoretical stage number was 12, optimal feed stage location was 9 and minimum reboiler heat duty was $12.7470{\times}10^6\;KJ/hr$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.151-159
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• 2001

As huge energy transfer systems like a nuclear power plant, steam power plant and petrochemical plant are operated for a long time, mechanical properties are changed by degradation. The life time of the systems can be affected by the mechanical properties. BI(Ball Indentation) test has a potential to replace conventional fracture tests like a uniaxial tensile test, fracture toughness test, hardness test and so on. In this paper, we would like to present the ageing evaluation technique by the BI method. The four classes of the thermally aged 1Cr-!mo-0.25V specimens were prepared using an artificially accelerated aging method. Tensile tests, fracture toughness tests, hardness tests and BI tests were performed. The results of the BI tests were in good agreement with fracture characteristics by a standard fracture test method within 5%. The IDE(Indentation Deformation Energy) of a BI technique as a new parameter for evaluating a degradation was suggested and the new IDE parameter clearly depicts the degradation degree.

• Plant Journal
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.62-67
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• 2009

The capability of design and engineering of global EPC companies has long been equalized through past similar construction experiences. Among various key factors in the success of EPC project, the capability of engineering is considered to be the most important factor since the engineering is preceding activities of EPC contract. The failure of engineering may adversely affect the subsequent procurement & construction activities and in turn may cause cost overrun or schedule delay. Therefore, an EPC company needs to continue to improve the engineering capabilities for the success of project. The engineering capabilities can be further improved if the EPC company should prevent recurrence of similar design faults that were previously committed. This study is intended to present how to make the most of the failure examples from previous projects towards a success of project. Failure is but a stepping stone to success. The EPC company can obtain useful lessons from the analysis of past failure examples.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 2000

As huge energy transfer systems like a nuclear power plant, steam power plant and petrochemical plant are operated for a long time, mechanical properties are changed by degradation. The life time of the systems can be affected by the mechanical properties. So determination of the integrity of the metallic structure is required either to en4sure that failure will not occur during the service life of the components or to evaluate the lifetime extension of the structure. An automated ball indentation(ABI) method was developed as a non-destructive technique for evaluating the integrity of such metallic components. In this paper, we would like to present the aging evaluation technique by the ABI method. The five classes of the thermally aged CF8M specimens were prepared using an artificially accelerated aging method. After holding 100, 300, 900, 1800 and 3600 hours at 43$0^{\circ}C$, the specimens were cooled down using water to room temperature respectively. The tensile test, hardness test, charpy impact test, ABI test were performed. The results of the fracture test were compared with those of ABI test and the new evaluation technique of the integrity of metallic structures was developed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.171-176
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• 2000

As huge energy transfer systems like a nuclear power plant, steam power plant and petrochemical plant are operated for a long time, mechanical properties are changed by degradation. The life time of the systems can be affected by the mechanical properties. BI(Ball Indentation) test has a potential to replace conventional fracture tests like a uniaxial tensile test, fracture toughness test, hardness test and so on. In this paper, we would like to present the aging evaluation technique by the BI method. The four classes of the thermally aged 1Cr-1Mo-0.25V specimens were prepared using an artificially accelerated aging method. Tensile tests, fracture toughness tests, hardness tests and BI tests were performed. The results of the BI tests were in good agreement with fracture characteristics by a standard fracture test method. The IDE(Indentation Deformation Energy) of a BI technique as a new parameter for evaluating a degradation was suggested and the new IDE parameter clearly depicts the degradation degree.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.182-194
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• 2009

This study was conducted to evaluate health status and to propose health protection measures of irregular plant construction workers in Yoesu National Industrial Complex (YNIC). The status of safety and health management was examined in five areas including safety and health education, work environment monitoring, health examination, health management record, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for plant construction workers. The safety training rate for plant construction workers was reached high at 91%, The training was mostly consisted of safety accident related things, but training on hazardous materials was found to be insufficient. Workplace monitoring results showed that the compliance rate for work environment for irregular construction workers was 54% and workplace monitoring during turnaround (TA) period with high risk of exposure to hazardous agents has not been implemented. While 61.4% of irregular workers received the general health examination but only 36.8% received the special health examination. The special health examination was found to be conducted only upon welders from 2-3 years ago. The issue of health management record upon irregular construction workers was not being implemented. In case of PPE, basic safety protective equipments such as safety shoes, safety belt, safety helmet were being supplied well while the supply rate of respirator for organic vapor was relatively low at 40%. Based on this study, two suggestions to maximize the utilization of the current safety and health program were made while boosting its effectiveness in protecting workers' health. First, the role of owners (petrochemical plant) related to safety and health should be strengthened. Second, in consideration of the characteristics of construction workers who usually engage in short term employment and frequent movement, community based health management organization is suggested that can overcome such structural problem and carry out the implementation of health examination and sustained health management.

• Plant Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2015

The objective of this study is to improve the classification structure of commodity code for piping material management which is considered as the fundamental of commodity code and piping material management system. It enhances the efficiency of piping material management directly or indirectly affecting the engineering, procurement and construction in a petrochemical plant projects. To establish an improved code classification structure, this study identifies the problems of former code classification structure in details, as well as the characteristics of other domestic and global EPC company's code classification structures and presents the improved direction considering the recently mega-sized and specialized projects. Accordingly, to efficiently enhance piping material management, the improved code classification structures have been derived from defining suitable code classification structure for specific piping component, adding more standard attribute, expanding the number of code digits and classifying code hierarchy. The results of applying the improved classification structure of commodity code to on-going project have led to reduce the rate of rework from 4.98% to 2.48% for developing purchase description and also have saved working time for executing piping design by 3D modeling from 6 months by two persons to 4 months by a person which is decreased 67% consequently. In addition, the structures of pyramid code management have resulted to accumulation and analysis of the various piping data for other disciplines such as procurement and estimation team which require commodity code information through the company's material control system.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2016

Background: A permit to work (PTW) is a formal written system to control certain types of work which are identified as potentially hazardous. However, human error in PTW processes can lead to an accident. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted to estimate the probability of human errors in PTWprocesses in a chemical plant in Iran. In the first stage, through interviewing the personnel and studying the procedure in the plant, the PTW process was analyzed using the hierarchical task analysis technique. In doing so, PTWwas considered as a goal and detailed tasks to achieve the goal were analyzed. In the next step, the standardized plant analysis risk-human (SPAR-H) reliability analysis method was applied for estimation of human error probability. Results: The mean probability of human error in the PTW system was estimated to be 0.11. The highest probability of human error in the PTW process was related to flammable gas testing (50.7%). Conclusion: The SPAR-H method applied in this study could analyze and quantify the potential human errors and extract the required measures for reducing the error probabilities in PTW system. Some suggestions to reduce the likelihood of errors, especially in the field of modifying the performance shaping factors and dependencies among tasks are provided.