Risk Assessment For A High-pressureNatural Gas Pipeline In An Urban Area

Abstract

Regulatory authorities in many countries are moving away from prescriptive approaches for keeping natural gas pipelines safe. As an alternative, risk management based on a quantitative assessment is being considered to improve the level of safety. This work focuses on the quantitative risk assessment for natural gas pipelines and introduces parameters of fatal length and cumulative fatal length. The fatal length is defined as the integrated fatality along the pipeline associated with hypothetical accidents. The cumulative fatal length is defined as the section of pipeline in which an accident leads to N or more fatalities. These parameters can be estimated easily within a geographic information systems (GIS). With currently acceptable criteria taken into account for individual risk, the minimum proximity of the pipeline to occupied buildings is proportional to the square root of the operating pressure of the pipeline. This quantitative risk assessment may be useful for risk management during the planning and building stages of a new pipeline, modification of the pipeline, and to lower the risk of a buried pipeline.