1,721,101 research outputs found
Virtual reality as enabling technology for data collection of second-generation human reliability methods
No full textThe Holistic Risk Analysis and Modelling (HoRAM) method
Full text linkMaking decisions in complex systems and for complex phenomena is a challenging task to accomplish. As complexity and uncertainty increase, the use of scenarios to exploring that uncertainty becomes essential to support decision makers. Yet, the increasing complexity of and interrelatedness amongst systems/phenomena is imposing to the risk analysis world a paradigm shift from traditional, “paper and pencil” approaches toward simulation-based approaches, not least because the cognitive demand required to envisage all the possible alternatives the system/phenomenon might unfold is too high to manage for the human mind. The paper presents how the Holistic Risk Analysis and Modelling (HoRAM) method allows, on the one hand, to holistically account for the Human, the Technological and the Organisational (HTO) elements of the system/phenomenon being analysed and, on the other hand, thanks to the use of artificial logic, to create complete partitions of sizes that are unthinkable to achieve with traditional, paper and pencil methods. The paper also explains how the method allows to systemically and systematically account for the consequences scenarios might generate, thus allowing to include in the decision both the possibility of the unwanted outcomes and the associated effort needed to make them less likely or less severe. Finally, it explains how the scenarios can be managed at different level of abstraction to deriving the well-known risk curve, the newly defined risk spectrum, and the critical functions list, which are all necessary tools to better discriminating which alternative to pursue and where exactly investing the (always limited and scarse) resources to reduce the risk
Innovation and Italy's Chemical Industries
No full textThe birth of Italy’s process industries can arguably be traced back to around 700 B.C. and the Etruscans. According to archaeological discoveries, the people of Etruria — an ancient region of Central Italy — were the first in the West to have workshops for forging iron.
The first glimpse of Italy’s chemicals industries as we know them today, however, did not appear until the late 19th century with the establishment of its first three chemical companies: Azienda Coloranti Nazionali e Affini (ACNA) in 1882 at Cengio; Menarini Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite (Menarini) in 1886 at Naples; and Società Anonima delle Miniere di Montecatini (Montecatini) in 1888 at Montecatini.
These early companies were established to satisfy the basic needs of that period such as dyes for the textile industry and explosives for military applications. In fact, ACNA, despite having an Italian acronym that translates as National Dyes Company and Affiliates, was first contracted to produce dynamite, rather than dyes.
Menarini was Italy’s first pharmaceutical company — and today the Menarini Group remains vital as Italy’s largest pharmaceutical group.
Tuscany-based Montecatini had its roots in the mining industry, exploiting the region’s copper mines. After the discovery of pyrite in Tuscany, Montecatini shifted its efforts to the production of sulfuric acid, later making its mark in ammonia production and becoming known for its widely-used Montecatini-Fauser process for fertilizer production
The Plant Simulator as viable means to prevent and manage risk through competencies management: Experiment results
Full text linkAbstractMaking decisions and managing competences in complex systems is a challenging task to accomplish. Specifically, the process industry is known for its complexity and sensitivity to critical procedures. Recent disasters like the “Deepwater Horizon” (2010, 11 fatalities), BP Texas City (2005, 15 fatalities), and AZF Toulouse (2001, 29 fatalities), clearly showed the risk to which we are all exposed. The increasing complexity of processes, due to the simultaneous escalation of automation, optimisation and intensification processes (followed to face globalisation challenges), are moving the attention to the management of abnormal situations, which are even more complex in nature and frequent. This increasing complexity, coupled with the fact that abnormal situations may lead to irreversible losses, is imposing the adoption of adequate approaches and tools that allow for better learning and properly managing abnormal situations. The paper presents a simulation-enabled, experiment-based approach that can be used to prevent and manage risk through competencies management. More specifically, the paper presents the results of the first experiment campaign performed in a Plant Simulator (PS), the first known in the process industry domain, and shows the efficacy of using Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE) both to make decisions and to train teams (not just single operators).The experiment results presented in the paper show the effectiveness of IVE to increase the competencies and train operators and managers. In addition, they explain how conveniently the data collected by means of the PS can be used for making daily decisions to better prevent and manage risks
The atypical assessment of risk and disaster management in municipalities that have seveso II production and storage sites on their territory
No full textBridging between Virtual Reality and accident simulation for training of process-industry operators
No full textIMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY FOR TRAINING AND DECISION MAKING: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED WITH A PLANT SIMULATOR
No full textThe use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) for training is an idea
that has existed for a long time; the real, unclarified doubt about its use is whether it does really increase performance with respect to traditional methods such as classroom and on-the-job training.
The most critical point of traditional training methods is the difficulty to train operators about a system’s deviations from nominal conditions. But even the more-advanced simulation-supported training approach, commercially represented by the operator training simulator (OTS), is not immune to flaws because it is affected both by the subjectivity of the assessment (making useless the operators’ benchmarking) and by the impossibility of training simultaneously the field operator (FOP) with the control room operator (CROP) (i.e., team training). The plant simulator (PS) enables overcoming the inherent limitations of the training methods. But the efficacy of using immersive virtual environments (IVEs) was, and to some extent still is, to be proved. This paper goes in that direction by explaining the preliminary results
of an experiment campaign performed in a PS, which demonstrates the clear benefit of using IVR for training (field) operators.
The paper even highlights that, if a PS is used, the benefits are not just limited to the training but can also be extended to operations managemen
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