KOCHI:
Research paper titled “Fuzzy FMECA (failure mode effect and criticality analysis) of LNG storage facility” authored by Professor (Dr.) V.R. Renjith and his research team from Division of Safety and Fire Engineering, CUSAT, has been listed as the most cited article from the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries published by Elsevier Publications.
This list is prepared based on the most cited articles published since 2017, extracted from Scopus. Even though the above paper was published in 2018, it could find place in the list along with the articles published by Prof. Faisal Khan (Memorial University, Canada) and Late Prof. Sam Mannan (Texas A&M University, USA), pioneers in the field of process safety and risk analysis.
The article deals about the development of a new tool, Fuzzy based Risk Priority Number (RPN) which is essential in Failure Mode Effect Criticality Analysis (FMECA) studies for proper prioritization. The newly developed method overcomes the deficiencies of traditional FMECA techniques that relied on RPN.
The analysis was carried out by using fuzzy linguistic variables for occurrence, severity and non-detection and then using an if-then rule base to interconnect these variables to reach Fuzzy RPN. The difficulty in prioritizing the RPN in the case of complex systems such as LNG storage has been addressed in this article. This method can identify most critical failure modes of components and its risk factors in process industries, which may save lot of money by avoiding accidents and unnecessary plant shut down. The method developed may be extended to other complex and critical installations such as aerospace (Chandrayaan-2), nuclear, drilling platforms, refineries etc. where the cost of the components are crucial based on the safety integrity level (SIL) level.
Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries is an International Journal of Chemical and Process Plant Safety published by Elsevier with impact factor 2.8. The focus of the journal is on loss prevention as practiced in the process industries with an emphasis on chemical and process plant safety.
