Hi
Does any one know if it is mandatory to regard control rooms and substations as blast proof spots?
If yes based upon which codes?
Dear seyyed Hamed Shojaeddin
Good question, a control room is there to provide operational monitoring and control for a range of processes. The design of a control room should really be based on separating people from hazard. Blast walls have often been used as a method of directing the impact of a blast into a safe area. The control room is often a 24-hour working environment. In doing so, there must be enough information and access for the shift crew to be able to monitor the processes, and conversely, enough shift crew to be able to monitor the information and access ports. For example, with an advanced, distributed control system, there need to be information display screens. This has also been used for protection of control rooms, but has to take into consideration the specifics of the release and subsequent potential explosion, to cover the needs of the other sides (and roof) of the building not otherwise protected. In many cases, it acts as the central point of focus for maintenance in the area, as permits to work are issued. Because of this, a number of people are regularly expected to be in this area at any one time. At the same time, the location of the control room also drives what functions should and should not be carried out in such an area. There should be enough to allow process and alarm monitoring, as well as some trending of data, and analysis. Given the centralisation of control rooms, enough operators for the screens, including cover, becomes one of the pre-requisites of the planning. What should not be the case, is that personnel are located closer to hazardous operations, than is needed by the role they must perform. At the same time, only those people who have a need to be in a more hazardous area than normal, should be there. For example, it is not necessarily the best place to have an emergency control centre, or to have general office staff in such a building. As a separate point, the logging systems for when Emergency shutdown systems, interlocks and alarms are disabled has to be as clear and auditable as possible, to allow for correct interpretation of what will and will not happen in an incident. Once the building is fully operational, periodically review, or review after changes to the plant and building, whether the modifications have catered for the needs of the control room and its operations, as well as for the original reason for the modification.
Regards,
Prem Baboo
For the location of the Control Room, the old IRI (Industrial Risk Insurers) standards can be considered, which are currently indicated in the GAPS Guidelines.
One of the considerations to avoid explosive atmospheres in the control rooms is that they must be "Pressurized and in case of having air conditioning with air intake, at least twelve meters (12m) above the floor level, to avoid Income of accidental discharges of Hydrocarbons or toxic gases".
The requiremnet for blast proof should be driven by statuatory requirement. The area is classified as manned or unmanned area. The definition shall be looked into the local government standards and this leads to design of appropiate system.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Modeling