In-service inspection and maintenance assessment of plant and equipment to reduce the risk of failure and hazardous release have been used for many decades as cost-effective procedures in concert with design, material selection, defect criteria, fabrication, and operation/use. Codes and standards have, more recently, sought to provide hazardous release protection as an additional means of reducing risk by means of criteria based on risk (event probability and consequences), including maintenance and inspection. These criteria use risk-based methods for prioritizing inspection and maintenance. In a power station or refinery, for example, the risk of unplanned shut-down is related to the failure or malfunction of a relatively small number of items. Risk-based maintenance and inspection allows efforts to be concentrated on items involving the highest risk, with a proportionate reduction in effort for low-risk items. Hence, base-load operating times can generally be increased, while maintaining the same or reduced level of risk. Maintenance and inspection play a vital role to reduce risk by more accurately quantifying event probability. Where there is a possibility of high-risk catastrophic failure, the consequences and risk to personnel, environment and equipment can be rendered tolerable to negligible if appropriate protective systems are in place with reduced maintenance and inspection. This paper reviews several cases in which the authors have been involved and in which failures would have been prevented if proper risk assessment procedures had been in place or in which assessment of risk was made to prevent failure. [S0094-9930(00)02203-4]
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August 2000
Technical Papers
Risk-Based Hazardous Release Protection and Prevention by Inspection and Maintenance
Samuel J. Brown,
Samuel J. Brown
Quest Engineering Development Corporation, Intertech Services, Inc., 7500 Old North Belt Drive, Humble, TX 77396
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Iain Le May
Iain Le May
Metallurgical Consulting Services, Ltd., Intertech Services, Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7K 5Y2
Search for other works by this author on:
Samuel J. Brown
Quest Engineering Development Corporation, Intertech Services, Inc., 7500 Old North Belt Drive, Humble, TX 77396
Iain Le May
Metallurgical Consulting Services, Ltd., Intertech Services, Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7K 5Y2
Contributed by the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division and presented at the International Conference on Pressure Vessel Technology, Sydney, Australia, April 9–14, 2000, of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the PVP Division, March 1, 2000; revised manuscript received April 13, 2000. Technical Editor: S. Y. Zamrik.
J. Pressure Vessel Technol. Aug 2000, 122(3): 362-367 (6 pages)
Published Online: April 13, 2000
Article history
Received:
March 1, 2000
Revised:
April 13, 2000
Citation
Brown, S. J., and Le May, I. (April 13, 2000). "Risk-Based Hazardous Release Protection and Prevention by Inspection and Maintenance ." ASME. J. Pressure Vessel Technol. August 2000; 122(3): 362–367. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.556193
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