Multiscale Modeling for Process Safety Applications

The book comprises 11 chapters preceded by a Preface and an Acknowledgement as follows:

Several accidents such as release of methyl isocyanate in Bhopal plant in December 1984 and Macondo disaster in 2010 certainly emphasize the importance of process safety. But assessing quantitatively process safety in spite of great strides in experimental validation and experience of handling the problem, the state of art of process safety is far from being satisfactory due to several reasons which includes substituting lack of understanding by conservatism in modelling. Multi-scale modeling is a computational technique for solving problems involving multiple scales, such as how a flammable vapour cloud might behave if ignited. This book therefore provides information on the fundamental topics of toxic, fire, and air explosion modeling, as well as modeling jet and pool fires using computational fluid dynamics. It is a valuable resource for readers interested in theoretical simulations and/or computer simulations of hazardous scenarios.

Molecular-level Modeling and simulation as well as computational fluid dynamics simulation constitutes two important chapters of the book. Necessary tools and background material such as finite element analysis, statistical analysis and Bayesian theory is covered in several chapters help understand the state of the art in practices of the process safety modelling and assessment and regulations. Monte Carlo simulation in inherently safe designs constitutes an important chapter of the book. The book also covers nanomaterial toxicity, QPSR analysis on relation of chemical structure to flash point, molecular structure and burning velocity, first principle studies of reactive chemicals, water and air reactive chemicals, and dust explosions.

This review has been published in Vol. 12, No. 3, May 2016 issue of the IJPE