Examples
Prevention of formation of explosive atmospheres & classification of hazardous areas
The well established rules of thumb often fail to provide adequate treatment in real situations. To achieve adequate assessment of potential extent of explosive atmospheres and optimize measures for prevention of formation of explosive atmospheres at the same time, state of the art classification of hazardous areas often requires the use of advanced tools like Computational Fluid Dynamics. More...
Safe procedures and prevention of ignition sources
In addition to potential ignition sources caused by the equipment, ignition sources (typically electrostatics) can arise as a result of processing hazardous substances. These additional potential ignition sources are vitally dependent on process parameters and physical properties of the substance. Manufacturer of the equipment is therefore not obliged to provide prevention of such ignition sources, on the contrary, safety measures which prevent occurrence of process caused ignition sources are the sole responsibility of the user. More...
Reliability of inerting
Inert conditions often play a vital role in effective prevention of explosions. However, experience shows that inerted vessels are often being opened in a way which poses a threat of loosing inert conditions. It should be noted that some open procedures involving process equipment (like adding powders and similar substances) are also likely to introduce ignition sources and are often the very reason for inerting equipment in the first place. More...
Tank filling
Hazardous electrostatic charging may occur if non-conductive liquid is pumped into a tank - especially if liquid contains even small amounts of impurities (e.g. dust particles, undissolved water). The resulting electrostatic field in the tank can promote discharges that are capable of ignition so that explosion may occur if filling takes place in non-inert conditions. More...