Knowledge based approach to support Hazop-studies

The report describes a study carried out in the Technical Research Centre of Finland to develop an expert system to support safety analysis of process systems, especially Hazard and Operability Study. A flexible tool could contribute to the application of Hazop in early phase of process design and thus increase system safety. The outcome of the project is a prototype called HAZOPEX, which includes extensive knowledge about potential causes of deviations, less knowledge about consequences or measures, but still has weaknesses of a research prototype with the user interface. HAZOPEX makes use of the process structure described to the system as linkages between process components. The functions of the prototype as well as the new method to trace potential causes of disturbances from the structure are described in the report. The prototype has been applied in two small cases with partners outside the project group and the results of the experiments are reported. A summary of the development needs is presented and a specification of an advanced version of HAZOPEX is given in the appendix.