Fire Safety Modeling Of Offshore Petroleum Facilities Platform

• Main Author: Elfaki, Mohamed Abdelgadir Mohamed Ahmed
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2014
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/14334/1/Mohamed%20Abdelgadir%20Mohamed%20-%2015800.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/14334/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Fire event is a major area of concern especially in the presence of large quantities of hydrocarbons just as in the case of an offshore platform. Thermal radiation is found to be the primary mechanism for causing hazards to individuals, assets and environment as a result of a fire event in open areas. This project aims to assess the fire safety system of an offshore petroleum facility in order to allocate the most beneficial and safest evacuation egress using CFD-FDS software. This should be accomplished by investigating the effect of the produced thermal radiation during the worst case scenario within the offshore petroleum facility platform. Moreover, the researcher will highlight system deficiency and propose recommendation for future facilities layout design (e.g. installation of equipment). The researcher has successfully developed the full-scale model of the offshore platform under investigation. Two mesh sizes were used to measure the evacuation time for the whole facility and found is 248 seconds and 191 seconds for fine and coarse mesh respectively. The produced thermal radiation is vary along the evacuation routes. Preventive measurements should be taken in the locations that detected high incident heat flux which can lead to equipment and human loss. Ground deck is found to be safe except in the location with coordinates of x=15.0, y=15.0, z=6.0 in which a number of 71 occupants will be exposed to 300°C. Upper deck are safe and temperature trends vary in normal range. Thermal resistance wall should be installed in the hazard location for human and property prevention.