Handbook of Fire and Explosion Protection Engineering Principles

Dr. Dennis P. Nolan has had a long career devoted to risk engineering, fire protection engineering, loss prevention engineering and systems safety engineering. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Business Administration from Berne University, Master of Science degree in Systems Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a U.S. registered professional engineer in fire protection engineering in the state of California.He is currently on the Executive Management staff of Saudi Aramco, located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, as a Loss Prevention Consultant/Chief Fire Prevention Engineer. He covers some of the largest oil and gas facilities in the world. As part of his career, he has examined oil production, refining, and marketing facilities under severe conditions and in various unique worldwide locations, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and North and South America. His activity in the aerospace field has included engineering support for the NASA Space Shuttle launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center (and for those undertaken at Vandenburg Air Force Base, California) and “classified” national defense systems. Dr. Nolan has received numerous safety awards and is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, He is the author of many technical papers and professional articles in various international fire safety publications. He has written at least four books, several published by Elsevier.

PrefaceAbout the Author1 Introduction2 Overview of Oil and Gas Facilities3 Philosophy of Protection Principles4 Physical Properties of Hydrocarbons5 Characteristics of Hydrocarbon Releases, Fires and Explosions6 Historical survey of Fire and Explosions in the Hydrocarbon Industries7 Risk Analysis8 Segregation, Separation and Arrangement9 Grading, Containment and Drainage Systems10 Process Controls11 Emergency Shutdown12 Depressurization, Blowdown and Venting13 Overpressure and Thermal Relief14 Control of Ignition Sources15 Elimination of Process Releases16 Fire and Explosion Resistant Systems17 Fire and Gas Detection and Alarm Systems18 Evacuation19 Methods of Fire Suppression20 Special Locations, Facilities, and Equipment21 Human Factors and Ergonomic ConsiderationsAppendicesAppendix A: Testing Firewater SystemsA-1 Testing of Firewater Pumping SystemsA-2 Testing of Firewater Distribution SystemsA-3 Testing of Sprinkler and Deluge SystemsA-4 Testing of Foam Fire Suppression SystemsA-5 Testing of Firewater Hose Reels and MonitorsA-6 Fire Protection Hydrostatic Testing RequirementsAppendix B: Reference DataB-1 Fire Resistance Testing StandardsB-2 Explosion and Fire Resistance RatingsB-3 National Electrical Manufactures Association (NEMA) NEMA ClassificationsB-4 Hydraulic DataB-5 Selected Conversion FactorsAcronym ListGlossaryIndex