Catastrophizing

Example 9.1 A process involves the use of benzene as a liquid under pressure. The temperature can be varied over a range. Compare the fire and explosion hazards of operating with a liquid process inventory of 1000 kmol at 100 and 150°C based on the theoretical combustion energy resulting from catastrophic failure of the equipment. The normal boiling point of benzene is 80°C, the latent heat of vaporization is 31,000 kJ kmol the specific heat capacity is 150 kJkmoh °C , and the heat of combustion is 3.2 x 10 kJkmok. ... 

Due to the fact, that AE by its peculiarities can be used to prevent catastrophic failure of structures and control the application of load, the higher risk of a pneumatic pressure test can be reduced significantly by the monitoring the structure during the loading by AE. 

The main goal during the pneumatic test (loading and pressure holds) is to have a pre-warning system against any catastrophic failure during the pneumatic loading (gas pressure test).(4)... 

Welded structures often have to be tested nondestructively, particularly for critical application where weld failure can he catastrophic, such as in pressure vessels, load-bearing structural members, and power plants. 

Ten years passed since the biggest radioactive catastrophe in the history of humanity happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Russian State medical dosimetric Register was founded after this catastrophe At present in the Register they keep a medical and radiation-dosimetric information about 435.276 persons. 

The failure of a concrete structure is of course not confined to catastrophic collapse. A concrete structure has failed or reached the end of its serviceability life when it is no longer capable of fulfilling its design functions, e.g. leak-tightness or as a barrier against deleterious elements which may cause corrosion. 

If a compact film growing at a parabolic rate breaks down in some way, which results in a non-protective oxide layer, then the rate of reaction dramatically increases to one which is linear. This combination of parabolic and linear oxidation can be tenned paralinear oxidation. If a non-protective, e.g. porous oxide, is fonned from the start of oxidation, then the rate of oxidation will again be linear, as rapid transport of oxygen tlirough the porous oxide layer to the metal surface occurs. Figure C2.8.7 shows the various growth laws. Parabolic behaviour is desirable whereas linear or breakaway oxidation is often catastrophic for high-temperature materials. 

An undesirable side-effect of an expansion that includes just a quadratic and a cubic term (as is employed in MM2) is that, far from the reference value, the cubic fimction passes through a maximum. This can lead to a catastrophic lengthening of bonds (Figure 4.6). One way to nci iimmodate this problem is to use the cubic contribution only when the structure is ,utficiently close to its equilibrium geometry and is well inside the true potential well. MM3 also includes a quartic term this eliminates the inversion problem and leads to an t". . 11 better description of the Morse curve. 

If this approach is to have any success, the weighting factors Cj must also decrease with increasing i to avoid a catastrophic increase in viscosity due to the proposed web of entanglements. We shall not detail the entire derivation of these C values as developed by Bueche but shall only note the following points ... 

Acetic acid, fp 16.635°C ((1), bp 117.87°C at 101.3 kPa (2), is a clear, colorless Hquid. Water is the chief impurity in acetic acid although other materials such as acetaldehyde, acetic anhydride, formic acid, biacetyl, methyl acetate, ethyl acetoacetate, iron, and mercury are also sometimes found. Water significantly lowers the freezing point of glacial acetic acid as do acetic anhydride and methyl acetate (3). The presence of acetaldehyde [75-07-0] or formic acid [64-18-6] is commonly revealed by permanganate tests biacetyl [431-03-8] and iron are indicated by color. Ethyl acetoacetate [141-97-9] may cause slight color in acetic acid and is often mistaken for formic acid because it reduces mercuric chloride to calomel. Traces of mercury provoke catastrophic corrosion of aluminum metal, often employed in shipping the acid. 

A great deal of experimental work has also been done to identify and quantify the ha2ards of explosive operations (30—40). The vulnerabiUty of stmctures and people to shock waves and fragment impact has been well estabUshed. This effort has also led to the design of protective stmctures superior to the conventional barricades which permit considerable reduction ia allowable safety distances. In addition, a variety of techniques have been developed to mitigate catastrophic detonations of explosives exposed to fire. 

For most hydrardic pressure-driven processes (eg, reverse osmosis), dense membranes in hoUow-fiber configuration can be employed only if the internal diameters of the fibers are kept within the order of magnitude of the fiber-wall thickness. The asymmetric hoUow fiber has to have a high elastic modulus to prevent catastrophic coUapse of the filament. The yield-stress CJy of the fiber material, operating under hydrardic pressure, can be related to the fiber coUapse pressure to yield a more reaUstic estimate of plastic coUapse ... 

Phosphoric acid [7664-38-2] is rarely used because of cost and disposal problems. Nitric acid [7697-37-2] is to be avoided because it is known to cause catastrophic damage to resin, equipment, and personnel if appropriate controls and monitoring systems are not installed. 

Risk-Based Inspection. Inspection programs developed using risk analysis methods are becoming increasingly popular (15,16) (see Hazard ANALYSIS AND RISK ASSESSMENT). In this approach, the frequency and type of in-service inspection (IS I) is determined by the probabiUstic risk assessment (PRA) of the inspection results. Here, the results might be a false acceptance of a part that will fail as well as the false rejection of a part that will not fail. Whether a plant or a consumer product, false acceptance of a defective part could lead to catastrophic failure and considerable cost. Also, the false rejection of parts may lead to unjustified, and sometimes exorbitant, costs of operation (2). Risk is defined as follows ... 

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