Industrial accidents triggered by earthquakes,floods and lightning: lessons learned from a database analysis |
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Authors: | Elisabeth Krausmann Elisabetta Renni Michela Campedel Valerio Cozzani |
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Institution: | (1) European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, TP 361, Via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra, VA, Italy;(2) Department of Chemical, Mining and Environmental Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Terracini 28, 40131 Bologna, Italy |
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Abstract: | Natural hazards and disasters can cause major accidents in chemical and process installations. These so-called Natech accidents
can result in hazardous-materials releases due to damage to process and storage units, or pipes. In order to understand the
dynamics of Natech events, accidents triggered by earthquakes, floods and lightning recorded in industrial accident databases
were analysed. This allowed the identification of the most vulnerable equipment types, their modes of failure due to natural-event
impact and the final accident scenarios. Moreover, lessons learned for future accident prevention and mitigation were derived.
The analysis showed that pipes and storage tanks are the most vulnerable equipment for earthquakes, floods and lightning,
calling for more research of equipment behaviour under natural-event loading. The damage modes and states are strongly dependent
on the characteristics of the impacting natural event. Toxic dispersion, fires and explosions were observed as a consequence
of all three types of analysed natural events. In the case of floods, two additional scenarios were identified. These are
water contamination and the formation of toxic and/or flammable vapours upon reaction of the released chemicals with the floodwaters.
The overall number of recorded Natech accidents was found to range from 2 to 5% of all reported accidents in the analysed
databases. |
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