UTILIZE PLANT-DATA FROM EMERGENCY RELIEF EVENTS TO TEST DESIGN METHODS A PROPOSAL TO THE AICHE DIERS USERS GROUP

Advanced methods for the design of emergency relief systems were devel oped under the auspices of the AlChE Design Institute for Emergency Re lief Systems (DIERS). Rapid progress has continued, but most testing h as been done at laboratory or small pilot plant scale. Full scale test s of design methods for emergency relief systems are much needed, but would be prohibitively expensive. Proposed here is a practical alterna tive: Use existing production data from operating plants to test desig n methods for emergency relief systems. Fortunately, although most eme rgency pressure relief events represent plant upsets and lost producti on, the relief system prevents a catastrophe in most process upsets. H owever, the qualitatively successful operation of an emergency relief system in a given upset does not represent proof of the design method employed. More importantly, it does not guarantee that the existing re lief system will perform successfully in every credible upset that the process might experience in the future. Advocated here is an industry -wide program to use data from selected process upsets to systematical ly evaluate the effectiveness of current emergency relief system desig n methods to quantitatively predict the performance of existing emerge ncy relief systems. Products of this effort would include confirmation of a significant number of existing design methods, identification of deficiencies in current methods, and a published compendium of docume nted and evaluated case histories of full-scale relief system performa nce. In addition to its instructive value to workers in emergency reli ef the compendium could be used to test new design methods. This propo sal is offered to the AIChE DIERS Users' Group. The DIERS Users' Group , which is comprised of over one hundred member companies, has represe ntatives qualified to define, organize, sponsor, and execute a multi-c ompany research program of this type. (NOTE: At the semiannual meeting of the AIChE DIERS Users' Group in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Septem ber 9, 1996, this proposal was presented to and adopted by the DIERS U sers' Group and assigned to the Case Histories Committee).