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Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Vol.91, No.6, 423-437, 2013
A model for estimating the impact of the domino effect on accident frequencies in quantitative risk assessments of storage facilities
It is well known that the domino effect can have a major impact on accidents in storage facilities, as it can increase the consequences of an initial event considerably. However, quantitative risk assessments (QRAs) do not usually take the domino effect into account in a detailed, systematic way, mostly because of its complexity and the difficulties involved in its incorporation. We have developed a simple method to include the domino effect in QRAs of storage facilities, by estimating the frequency with which new accidents will occur due to this phenomenon. The method has been programmed and implemented in two case studies. The results show that it can indeed be used to include the possibility of domino effect occurrence in a QRA. Furthermore, depending on the design of a facility, the domino effect can have a significant effect on the associated risk. (C) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.