Principles of Forensic Engineering Applied to Industrial Accidents

Informationen zum Autor Professor Luca Fiorentini is an internationally recognized expert in the field of industrial, process safety and fire engineering. He is owner and CEO of TECSA S.r.l. international consulting company working in the field of loss prevention and industrial safety, fire engineering and environmental protection. He is senior process safety, HSE, fire engineering and reliability consultant. Professor Fiorentini has experience in QRA (Hazop, LOPA, FTA, ETA, Consequence analysis), CFD and FEM methods, RAM analysis and industrial risk assessment for a number of industries: major hazard industries, refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants, liquid hydrocarbons and LPG storage farms, oil and gas onshore installations and offshore platforms, steelwork plants, food processing facilities, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals production plants, hospitals and health care facilities, ports and piers. He is an expert of fire engineering and fire risk assessment. Fiorentini is a recognized forensic engineer and investigator for fires, explosions and industrial and marine accidents. He is the author of several books, articles and conference papers as well as a reviewer for a number of scientific magazines. He is also a professional member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (UK) and an editorial board member of "International Journal of Forensic Engineering" and "Fire Protection Engineering Magazine" (SFPE). Professor Luca Marmo is a researcher at Politecnico di Torino technical university, holder of the chair of "Safety of industrial Processes" on the Chemical Engineering course, and director of the "Experimental Centre for Explosive Atmosphere Safety" at the Politecnico di Torino Scientific Activity. Consultant to the Public prosecutor and to the Court as a forensic engineer, he has investigated more than one hundred industrial and civil accidents, mainly fires and explosions. The skills of his research group are mainly focused on industrial safety and risk analysis, production of microorganisms and biomolecules of industrial interest, valorisation processes of wastes and industrial by-products, and production of microorganisms and enzymes applied in toxic compounds biodegradation processes. Other research fields concern experimental activity on fluidised bed reactors, CFD modelling of gas?solid multiphase reactors, and experimental activity on the valorisation of wastes. Author of more than 60 papers on international journals or presented at conferences, he is also a consultant to many companies and public bodies in the field of industrial safety and accident prevention, including government agencies at national and European level. Klappentext An introductory text on the investigation of industrial accidentsForensic engineering should be seen as a rigorous approach to the discovery of root causes that lead to an accident or near-miss. The approach should be suitable to identify both the immediate causes as well as the underlying factors that affected, amplified, or modified the events in terms of consequences, evolution, dynamics, etc., as well as the contribution of an eventual "human error".This book is a concise and introductory volume to the forensic engineering discipline which helps the reader to recognize the link among those important, very specialized aspects of the same problem in the global strategy of learning from accidents (or near-misses). The reader will benefit from a single point of access to this very large, technical literature that can be only correctly understood with the right terms, definitions, and links in mind.Keywords:* Presents simple (real) cases, as well as giving an overview of more complex ones, each of them investigated within the same framework;* Gives the readers the bibliography to access more in-depth specific aspects;* Offers an overview of the most commonly used methodologies and techniques to investigate accidents, in...

List of contents

Foreword by Giomi xiii
 
Foreword by Chiaia xv
 
Foreword by Tee xvii
 
Preface xix
 
Acknowledgement xxi
 
List of Acronyms xxiii
 
1 Introduction 1
 
1.1 Who Should ReadThis Book? 1
 
1.2 Going Beyond theWidget! 2
 
1.3 Forensic Engineering as a Discipline 5
 
References 7
 
Further Reading 7
 
2 Industrial Accidents 9
 
2.1 Accidents 9
 
2.1.1 Principles of Combustion 14
 
2.1.1.1 Flammable Gases and Vapors 17
 
2.1.1.2 Flammable Liquids 21
 
2.1.1.3 The Ignition 22
 
2.1.2 Fires 23
 
2.1.3 Explosions 27
 
2.1.4 Incidental Scenarios 33
 
2.2 Near Misses 39
 
2.3 Process Safety 40
 
2.3.1 Management of Safety 41
 
2.4 The Importance of Accidents 47
 
2.4.1 Seveso disaster 48
 
2.4.2 Bhopal Disaster 51
 
2.4.3 Flixborough Disaster 55
 
2.4.4 Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig Explosion 58
 
2.4.5 San Juanico Disaster 60
 
2.4.6 Buncefield Disaster 64
 
2.5 Performance Indicators 68
 
2.6 The Role of 'Uncertainty' and 'Risk' 72
 
References 75
 
Further reading 78
 
3 What is Accident Investigation?What is Forensic Engineering?What is Risk Assessment?Who is the Forensic Engineer and what is his Role? 79
 
3.1 Investigation 79
 
3.2 Forensic Engineering 87
 
3.3 Legal Aspects 91
 
3.4 Ethic Issues 95
 
3.5 Insurance Aspects 96
 
3.6 Accident Prevention and Risk Assessment 98
 
3.6.1 "What-if " Analysis 100
 
3.6.2 Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) & Hazard Identification (HAZID) 101
 
3.6.3 Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) 105
 
3.7 Technical Standards 105
 
References 112
 
Further Reading 113
 
4 The Forensic EngineeringWorkflow 115
 
4.1 TheWorkflow 115
 
4.2 Team and Planning 118
 
4.3 Preliminary and Onsite Investigation (Collecting the Evidence) 124
 
4.3.1 Sampling 127
 
4.3.1.1 Selection of the Sample 127
 
4.3.1.2 Collection of the Sample 128
 
4.3.1.3 Packaging of the Sample 129
 
4.3.1.4 Sealing the Packaging 130
 
4.4 Sources and Type of Evidence to be Considered 130
 
4.4.1 People 133
 
4.4.1.1 Conducting the Interview 136
 
4.4.2 Paper Documentation 138
 
4.4.3 Digital Documentation and Electronic Data 140
 
4.4.3.1 An Example about the Value of Digital Evidence 141
 
4.4.4 Physical Evidence 145
 
4.4.5 Position Data 146
 
4.4.6 Photographs 147
 
4.4.6.1 The Collection of the Photographs 148
 
4.4.6.2 Photograph Cataloguing 150
 
4.5 Recognise the Evidence 152
 
4.5.1 Short Case Studies 155
 
4.5.1.1 Explosion of Flour at the Mill of Cordero in Fossano 156
 
4.5.1.2 Explosion at the Pettinatura Italiana Plant 157
 
4.5.1.3 Explosion of the Boiler of the SISAS Plant of Pioltello 160
 
4.5.1.4 Explosion of the Steam Generator of the Plant Enichem Synthesis at Villadossola 163
 
4.5.1.5 Aluminium Dust Explosion at Nicomax in Verbania 163
 
4.6 Organize the Evidence 166
 
4.7 Conducting the Investigation and the Analysis 168
 
4.7.1 Method of the Conic Spiral 172
 
4.7.2 Evidence Analysis 173
 
4.8 Reporting and Communication 175
 
References 180
 
Further Reading 182
 
5 Investigation Methods 183
 
5.1 Causes and Causal Mechanism Analysis 183
 
5.2 Time and Events Sequence 192
 
5.2.1 STEP

Product details

• Authors: L Fiorentini, Luc Fiorentini, Luca Fiorentini, Luca Marmo Fiorentini, Luca Marmo
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.01.2019
• EAN: 9781118962817
• ISBN: 978-1-118-96281-7
• No. of pages: 520
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Electronics, electrical engineering, communications engineering; Forensik, Life Sciences, Biowissenschaften, Forensic Science, Industrial Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Elektrotechnik u. Elektronik, Menschliche Faktoren u. Risikobewertung, Human Factors & Risk Assessment, Industrielle Verfahrenstechnik, Produktion i. d. Industriellen Verfahrenstechnik, Industrial Engineering / Manufacturing