Early hazard identification of chemical plants with statechart modelling techniques

An extensive hazard identification of a chemical plant as parr of a sound s afety analysis is nor only highly recommendable but often subject to offici al approval of construction by the national governmental authorities. Since established methods, e.g. HazOp studies, are mostly carried out manually a nd thus still involve a lot of disadvantages, there has been a marked incre ase in the research of computer-based analysis methods in the last years. T his project aims at introducing a new approach to process hazard identifica tion by simulation and analysis. As a basis, a qualitative plant model form ulated as statecharts has to be generated first which benefits from the lac k of information at early design stages. HazOp-like simulations can be perf ormed if stimulus to the model is given which corresponds to a HazOp guide word. In addition, special safety issues can be answered by reachability ex aminations of dangerous plant states in the model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.