Accident energy

Liu Zijun. 2011. Some thoughts about investigation and handling of coalmine accidents. Energy and Environment 105(2) 103. 

The strain energy accumulated in grips and testing machine is released at the first crack and the specimen may be broken without any control. In that case it is impossible to obtain descending branch of the stress-strain curve and even the maximum load is unknown, because after the first crack the element is rapidly ruptured. To avoid such accidents energy accumulation should be minimized and its release controlled by the application of testing machines with a closed-loop system and by sufficient stiffness of the grips and the machine itself. 

Guidance on investigating and analysing human and organisational factors aspects of incidents and accidents Energy Institute May 2008 ISBN 978 0 85293 521 7 www.energyinst.org.uk/humanfactors/incidentandaccident... 

This Part reviews different risk-analysis methods. Risk analysis is a planned activity involving an identification and evaluation of accident risks in the workplace. We will start in Chapter 21 by establishing some common principles of the different risk-analysis methods. We will then in Chapters 22 to 25 go through four different methods that primarily are used in the analysis of the risk of occupational accidents energy analysis, job-safety analysis and comparison analysis. One chapter is dedicated to the risk assessment of machinery. Finally, we will in Chapter 26 review the CRIOP method, where the interaction between the operators and the technical system are analysed when the system is in a disturbed state. The aim is here to prevent major accidents. 

For vei y small vibronic coupling, the quadratic terms in the power series expansion of the electronic Hamiltonian in normal coordinates (see Appendix E) may be considered to be negligible, and hence the potential energy surface has rotational symmetry but shows no separate minima at the bottom of the moat. In this case, the pair of vibronic levels Aj and A2 in < 3 become degenerate by accident, and the D3/, quantum numbers (vi,V2,/2) may be used to label the vibronic levels of the X3 molecule. When the coupling of the... 

A technique called probabiUstic safety assessment (PSA) has been developed to analy2e complex systems and to aid in assuring safe nuclear power plant operation. PSA, which had its origin in a project sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, is a formali2ed identification of potential events and consequences lea ding to an estimate of risk of accident. Discovery of weaknesses in the plant allows for corrective action. 

Optimism about economic growth in the period 1960—1975 led to a large number of reactor orders. Many of these were canceled even after partial completion in the period after the 1974 oil crisis, as the result of a reduction in energy demand. Inflation, high interest rates, long constmction periods, and regulatory delays resulted in severe cost overmns. Moreover, the reactor accidents of TMI and, later, Chernobyl produced an atmosphere of pubHc concern. 

Analyses and experimental results used to assess the consequences of a severe potential accident have resulted in substantially reduced estimates of severe accident consequences. Comparing estimates made by the U.S. Atomic Energy Agency (27) in 1977 with those reported by the U.S. NRC (18,28) in 1990 shows that improved knowledge and plant modifications have reduced the cote damage frequency by a factor of 3—15, depending on reactor type. Additionally, the fractions of radioactive species that would be released are lower by a factor of 10—100,000, depending on the radioactive species. 

All sorts of accidents (the sudden collapsing of bridges, sudden explosion of steam boilers) have occurred - and still do - due to this effect. In all cases, the critical stress - above which enough energy is available to provide the tearing energy needed to... 

There are costs associated with loss of visibility and solar energy. These include increased need for artificial illumination and heating delays, disruptions, and accidents involving air, water, and land traffic vegetation growth reduction associated with reduced photosynthesis and commercial losses associated with the decreased attractiveness of a dingy communiW... 

The previous chapter described the consequences of a nuclear reactor accident. Chemical process accidents are more varied and do not usually have the energy to melt thick pressure vessels and concrete basemats. The consequences of a chemical process accident that releases a toxic plume, like Bhopal did, are calculated similarly to calculating the dose from inhalation from a radioactive plume but usually calculating chemical process accidents differ from nuclear accidents for which explosions do not occur. 

The model contains a surface energy method for parameterizing winds and turbulence near the ground. Its chemical database library has physical properties (seven types, three temperature dependent) for 190 chemical compounds obtained from the DIPPR" database. Physical property data for any of the over 900 chemicals in DIPPR can be incorporated into the model, as needed. The model computes hazard zones and related health consequences. An option is provided to account for the accident frequency and chemical release probability from transportation of hazardous material containers. When coupled with preprocessed historical meteorology and population den.sitie.s, it provides quantitative risk estimates. The model is not capable of simulating dense-gas behavior. 

Labeling Errors Cause Accidents, Safety Note No. DOE/EH-0328, U.S. Dept, of Energy, Washington, D.C., July 1993. 

Although the blast effects of the East St. Louis tank-car accident (NTSB 1973) were found to be highly asymmetric, average TNT equivalencies of 10% on an energy basis and 109% on a mass basis were found. These equivalencies were calculated based on the assumption of a full tank-car inventory (55,000 kg) of a mixture of propylene and propane. 

The development of MORT was initiated by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and is described in Johnson (1980). MORT is a comprehensive analytical procedure that provides a disciplined method for detennining the causes and contributing factors of major accidents. It also serves as a tool to evaluate the quality of an existing safety program. 

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