Abstract
With the rapid development of the construction industry, an increasing amount of attention were paid by universities to the development of civil engineering experiment courses so as to improve the practical research abilities of students. In recent years, due to the frequent occurrence of civil engineering laboratory accidents, it has become an urgent issue regarding on what factors influencing safety risks and how to assess and reduce the safety risks in civil engineering laboratories. Based on the lab criticity index (LCI) model, the research specificities of civil engineering laboratories were analyzed through literature review and expert interviews and 13 risk factors of civil engineering laboratories, from the four aspects of man, object, management, and environment, identified. The data for each parameter in the LCI model was obtained through a questionnaire survey, and finally the LCI value was calculated to evaluate priority. Among them, insufficient safety awareness of operators, danger due to equipment failure, imperfect management policies, and complex floor conditions were listed as the most common risk factors. Based on the LCI model, the worsening factors of these four risk factors were further analyzed. The LCI model is applied to the new research field of safety risk assessment in civil engineering laboratories that few researchers have studied before and a risk list for civil engineering laboratories was created. We revealed the safety status of civil engineering laboratories in Jiangsu Province and provided feasible suggestions for improving the management and supervision of civil engineering laboratories at universities. It can strengthen operator awareness of the risks in civil engineering laboratories and improve the social group’s attention to the safety risks of the laboratories, thus reducing the accidents’ possibility and seriousness of civil engineering laboratories.
Highlights
A university laboratory is a serious workplace that needs to be studied [1], and it is expected to be the main place for the implementation of inquiry practice [2]
As the Spearman–Brown coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.834, the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable [61]. This questionnaire was designed based on the lab criticity index (LCI) model, and the specific issues involved were all designed for factors
The referenced questionnaire used in the design of this version has been applied to the laboratory safety risk research by relevant scholars
Summary
The LCI model is used to evaluate the risk factors of the civil engineering laboratories.The relevant data involved in the model was obtained from experienced teachers or laboratory staff through a questionnaire survey.4.1. The LCI model is used to evaluate the risk factors of the civil engineering laboratories. There are many risk assessment methods, such as hazard and operability analysis (HAZOP), fault tree analysis (FTA), event tree analysis (ETA), RPN, risk matrix, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), etc., but they have some defects and are not very suitable for the research of assessing the safety risks in civil engineering laboratories. Civil engineering laboratories have their own characteristics, which contain many different types of experiments involving geotechnical, mechanics, and structure, etc. There are many risk factors that affect the safety of civil engineering laboratories, including four aspects: man, object, management, and environment, which make risk assessment more complicated
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