Lloyd's Register's Guidance Notes for the Calculation of Probabilistic Explosion Loads provide recommended practices to help engineers, operators and designers to define correct blast and explosion loads to mitigate and control risk measures offshore.
They also provide information on how to establish explosion loads based on the probability of potentially dangerous issues arising when running oil and gas plants under a range of operating scenarios.
Joar Dalheim, vice president technology at Lloyd's Register Energy, makes the point that, to maximise safety in offshore operations, structures and equipment that could be subjected to blast pressures need to be designed for accidental blast loading.
"By using these guidance notes with our rules for offshore units, companies can simplify and streamline their design appraisal process to give them a fast and highly cost-effective solution," states Dalheim.
Pointing to the wide variety of measures that can be used to prevent, control and mitigate the effects of explosions, he reminds operators that while the emphasis should always be on explosion prevention – for example, through prevention of leaks or elimination of ignition sources – the possible accumulation and ignition of a flammable hydrocarbon-air mix cannot always be eliminated.
The Lloyd's Register methodology can be applied to any offshore unit where gas explosion hazards are possible.
The new guidance notes also include advice on how to handle leak scenarios from LNG (liquefied natural gas) plants, which can be caused by flashing of cryogenic liquids.
The new Guidance Notes for the Calculation of Probabilistic Explosion Loads work alongside the Lloyd's Register's Rules for Offshore Units.
To download the guidance, visit the link below.