Life cycle risk assessment is an interesting topic in and beyond the integrity management field. This article features a discussion of this special type of risk assessment applied to a certain pipeline installation method, in this case, HDD installation. In previous articles, we’ve discussed some non-regulatory integrity management program applications of pipeline risk assessment (including […]
Topic: Facilities / tanks / pumps / compressors / appurtenances / etc
Facilities / tanks / pumps / compressors / appurtenances / etc, General, Modeling, Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment Methodologies
Pipeline Risk Assessment
Risk assessment on any facility is most efficiently done by first dividing the facility into components with unchanging risk characteristics. For a cross-country pipeline, this involves collecting data on all portions of the pipeline and its surroundings and then using this data to ‘dynamically segment’ the pipeline into segments of varying length. Risk algorithms are […]
Pipeline Reliability–Service Interruption As ‘Failure’
Generally, a pipeline’s reliability includes consideration of all leak/rupture scenarios PLUS all other scenarios that could prevent the system from performing its intended function. With the normal ‘intended function’ being something like: deliver product to point B from point A at specified flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and product quality, a reliability failure occurs when any […]
How do I include ‘tank overfilling’ in a risk assessment?
You first choose to include such events in your definition of ‘failure’. Then, the event is assessed like any integrity-threatening event, in terms of exposure, mitigation, and resistance. Perhaps this event can be included as an Incorrect Operations scenario, along with analogous events such as overpressure.
How should I be doing risk assessments in facilities like tank farms, compressor stations, etc?
Exactly the same way as for components on the ROW. You don’t want or need multiple risk assessment approaches. A good risk assessment methodology works equally efficiently on any component or any collection of components. The challenge with facilities will be in segmentation. The more robust assessments will examine very small sub-components (eg, the casing of the pump […]
How do I include flange and screw-connection leaks that are really just ‘wiggling loose’ over time?
This scenario must first be categorized in terms of its underlying failure mechanism. An underlying question to answer when categorizing a failure mechanism as either time independent or time dependent is ‘if there have been no changes in any forces, then why did it fail today instead of yesterday?’. When a fitting or appurtenance has performed […]