Accident Simulation and Event Reconstruction

The tradition and vocation to modeling and simulation applied to the Safety realm drove the PSE-Lab to build two computer programs AXIM and DETONIM.

This is the hierarchical structure of the Accident Simulation and Event Reconstruction section:

• Accident Simulation
  • Dynamic simulation of industrial accidents
  • Dynamic simulation of transportation accidents
  • Coupling of accident simulator and process simulator
  • 3D virtual environments for accident simulation
  • AXIM
    • Features
      • Capability of simulating events whose conditions (e.g., emission, weather, triggering events) are continuously varying and not defined a priori
      • Weather dependency
        • Cloud coverage
        • Wind velocity
        • Wind direction
        • Air humidity
        • Air temperature
        • Solar radiation
        • Latitude
        • Hour, day, month of the year
      • Ground dependency
        • Water
        • Soil
          • Terrain
          • Peeble
          • Asphalt
      • Liquid and gas emission
        • From industrial equipment
        • From tanks, vessels, …
      • Liquid spreading
        • Pool formation on different grounds
          • Soil, terrain, asphalt
          • Water
      • Gas dispersion
        • Dense gas
        • Neutral/buoyant gas
        • Spray
      • Ignition
      • Pool fire
      • Flash fire
      • Jet fire
      • Fireball
    • DLL structure and interaction with external programs through a server/client architecture
  • Consequence analysis and quantification of industrial and transportation accidents
    • Gas profile concentration
      • IDLH, LC01, LC50, LC99, LD01, LD50, LD99
      • AEGL, ERPG, TEEL
    • Radiation
      • On equipment
      • On human beings
        • Burns
        • Lethal threshold
    • Overpressure
      • After deflagration
      • After detonation
  • Consequence analysis and quantification of detonation of solid explosives
    • Solid explosive analysis and TNT equivalence
      • RDX, ANFO, PDL, PETN, HMX, TORP, PCLA
      • Ammonium nitrate
      • Rockets propellant
    • Solid explosive
      • Loose explosive
      • Munition explosive in metal casing
        • Bullets
        • Bombs
        • Grenades
        • Missiles
    • Analytic evaluation of overpressure and impulse
      • Solution of direct and inverse problems
        • Direct problem: overpressure at a given distance and given amount of solid explosive
        • Indirect problem: determine the maximum amount of solid explosive (either loose or munitions)  to produce a threshold limit of overpressure/impulse at a given distance
    • Consequences and design for safety
      • Overpressure
      • Impulse
      • Fireball
      • Heat radiation
      • Seismic wave
      • Gas concentration of burnt substances
      • Production of fragments
        • Density of fragments
        • Energy of fragments
        • Fragments distribution
        • Range of fragments
        • Probability of impact with still and moving targets
    • Role of safety walls and embankments
      • Heavy- and Light-weight concrete
      • Composite materials for roofs
      • Other mitigation barriers
    • Over-the-ground and under-the-ground depots

• Accident Event Reconstruction
  • BP explosion and fire at Texas City Refinery on March 23rd, 2005
  • Viareggio LPG railway accident on June 29th, 2009
  • Consequences analysis