| Risk Based Inspection (RBI): "Success is foreseeing
failure"
- Henry Petroski (in his book "To Engineer is Human")
Risk-based inspection refers to risk mitigation through inspection
programs, using risk analysis methodologies. RBI has been applied in industries such as
power generation, refineries, petrochemical plants and pipelines.
Risk has been defined as the combination of likelihood
of a failure and consequence of the failure. A simple qualitative
risk-based ranking matrix that is often used to introduce RBI concepts is shown in the
diagram below. RBI focuses on providing sufficient and appropriate inspection resources
for the high risk items, rather than over-inspecting low-risk items "at the
expense" of the higher risk areas.
It has been pointed out that RBI
methodologies can be viewed as a more general tool for risk reduction, extending beyond
inspection activities. Apart from modifications to inspection programs, risk reduction
could be accomplished by the installation of additional safety equipment, improved safety
procedures and training, leak detection, improved emergency response measures, changes in
the materials of construction, improved control over process parameters, the introduction
of specialized corrosion monitoring programs for selected items, etc. |
References:
R.J. Horvath: "The Role of the Corrosion Engineer in the Development
and Application of Risk-Based Inspection for Plant Equipment", Materials
Performance, 1998.
J.T. Reynolds: "The API Methodology for Risk-Based Inspection (RBI)
Analysis in the Petroleum and Petrochemical Industry", First Annual Symposium of the
Mary Kay O-Connor Process Safety Center, College Station, Texas, 1998. (paper is available
on-line at link indicated below)
D.G. John, P. Attwood and A.N. Rothwell: "Advances in Integrated
Database Systems for Corrosion Management of Oil & Gas Production", Paper # 249,
Corrosion 99, NACE International, 1999.
Links:
Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center
http://process-safety.tamu.edu/mkopsc.htm
(look under Symposiums for on-line papers)
|
|
