On software interoperability in accident consequence assessment

The interoperability of different risk analysis software tools is a very important aspect that would strongly and effectively support the work of safety authorities in their reviewing activity of safety reports for Seveso-type installations. This reviewing activity could indeed be difficult if the models and software tools used by the authority are different from those used by the operator of the industrial facility under scrutiny. Software interoperability has recently been addressed in many application fields and it consists of the definition and the recognition of a common data format for data exchange amongst different software, which are intended to perform similar tasks and functions. Some initiatives in this direction have already been launched in the nuclear sector (Open-PSA), in which a first attempt to define a data exchange format for Probabilistic Safety Assessment has been successfully conducted. The study presented in this paper was intended to define a first prototype of a Common Data Exchange Format (CDEF) for accident-consequence tools (fire explosions, dispersion of toxic substances into the environment), used in the chemical sector, which represent a key aspect in the risk analysis process. The developed prototype was then tested on a number of commercially available software tools.

CONTINI Sergio;  FABBRI Luciano;  MATUZAS Vaidas;  BINDA Massimo; 

2011-11-03

Taylor & Francis

JRC64607

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC64607,