Title: Hazard identification by extended multilevel flow modelling with function roles

Authors: Jing Wu; Laibin Zhang; Sten Bay Jørgensen; Gürkan Sin; Zia Ullah Khokhar; Morten Lind

Addresses: College of Mechanical and Transportation Engineering, China University of Petroleum – Beijing, 18 Fuxue Road, Changping, Beijing 102249, China ' College of Mechanical and Transportation Engineering, China University of Petroleum – Beijing, 18 Fuxue Road, Changping, Beijing 102249, China ' Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, 2800, Denmark ' Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, 2800, Denmark ' Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of the Punjab, P.O. Box No. 54590, Lahore, Pakistan ' Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, 2800, Denmark

Abstract: HAZOP studies are widely accepted in chemical and petroleum industries as the method for conducting process hazard analysis related to design, maintenance and operation of the systems. In this paper, a HAZOP reasoning method based on function-oriented modelling, multilevel flow modelling (MFM) is extended with function roles to complete HAZOP studies in principle. A graphical MFM editor, which is combined with the reasoning engine (MFM Workbench) developed by DTU is applied to automate HAZOP studies. The method is proposed to support the 'brain-storming' sessions in traditional HAZOP analysis. As a case study, the extended MFM-based HAZOP methodology is applied to an offshore three-phase separation process. The results show that the cause-consequence analysis in MFM can infer the cause and effect of a deviation used in HAZOP and used to fill HAZOP worksheet. This paper is the first paper discussing and demonstrating the potential of the roles concept in MFM to supplement the completeness of HAZOP analysis in theory.

Keywords: hazard identification; multilevel flow modelling; MFM; automated HAZOP; oil and gas industry; reasoning engine; offshore separation process; function roles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSE.2014.066690

International Journal of Process Systems Engineering, 2014 Vol.2 No.3, pp.203 - 220

Received: 28 Oct 2013
Accepted: 14 Jan 2014

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

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