Technical Safety of Systems

This course covers a broad topic of technical safety and design for safety of mechanical systems. The main focus is on piping / process systems, however all discussed topics have application across wider field of systems and the course would be beneficial for any engineers working in a multidisciplinary and complex projects especially ones that are safety critical.

The course starts with overview of technical safety and how it is managed. We review the concept of risk assessment and reduction. The course presents practical solution to management of safety in a developing design lifecycle and several of the most widely used hazard identification techniques. All techniques are reinforced with worked group exercises. Final part of the course provides some of the best practice in system design, looking at the common failures and hazards and common techniques for risk mitigation.

Course Outline

• Introduction
  • Design for safety
  • Why failures occur
  • Incidents not caused by system failure
  • Design codes, class rules, etc

• Risk Assessment
  • Basics
  • Hierarchy of risk reduction
  • Risk mitigation and reduction
  • Worked examples
  • ALARP
  • Domain knowledge
  • Use of 3rd party and experts
• Design Lifecycle
  • Design Reviews
  • Design risk register and action log
  • Residual risk
  • Design substantiation
• Hazard Identification Techniques
  • HAZID / HAZOP
  • Worked example
  • SWIFT
  • Worked example
  • FMECA
  • Worked example
  • Quantitative Risk Assessment
  • Tools
  • Limitations
• Reliability / Redundancy / Single point of failure
• Systems related hazards and best practice
  • Over pressure
  • Explosion and fire
  • Rotating / moving parts
  • Chemicals
  • Electrical faults
  • Human error
  • Structural failure
  • Dropped object
  • Seismic
  • Corrosion
  • Vibrations / Fatigue / Creep