Conference Papers
Elongated congestion patterns are common at chemical processing and petroleum refining facilities due to the arrangement of processing units. The accidental vapor cloud explosion (VCE) which occurred at the Buncefield, UK facility involved an elongated congested volume formed by the trees and undergrowth along the site boundary. Although elongated congested volumes are common, there have been few evaluations reported for the blast loads produced by elongated VCEs. Standard VCE blast load prediction techniques do not directly consider the impact of this congested volume geometry versus a more compact geometry.
Dr. Geng is a member of BakerRisk’s Blast Effects Group. His work focuses on research and development of 3-D CFD (computational fluid dynamics) code and visualization systems capable of simulating generation and propagation of blast and shock waves and their interaction with structures or buildings. Dr. Geng has successfully developed a robust three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics code, BWTI© (Blast Wave-Target Interaction), which is routinely used in project work for BakerRisk.
Mr. Baker is a member of BakerRisk’s Blast Effects Group. His work focuses on explosion and combustion phenomena. He has conducted numerous R&D projects, hazard analyses, and engineering studies involving airblast effects from a wide variety of explosion sources, blast loads, fragmentation effects, debris throw, blast damage, and personnel injury.
Injury prediction and risk analysis have also been the subject of Mr. Baker’s research; he has contributed to the development of a building occupant vulnerability model. He has also investigated explosions and fires including chemical processing facilities, upstream oil and gas, midstream/pipeline, grain storage and handling, rail, and ship.
As the biofuels industry continues to expand in support of global decarbonization mandates and objectives, facility owners and developers are being challenged to balance production efficiency, operational reliability, and personnel safety.
As high hazard facilities, biofuels sites should focus on developing a fire protections strategy informed by performance-based analysis so strategies implemented meet the unique challenges found at each facility.