| Abstract: |
In an industrial site the tank area can represent a possible source of accidents whose consequences can involve the human population and the surrounding environment. Therefore this area is subject to the general prevention obligations defined by national laws. Anyway the tank in service conformance tests are presently not always exhaustively regulated and therefore the responsible manager is due to define the most adequate programme for such tests. On this matter a technical support is given by the American Petroleum Institute, through an analysis methodology defined by the document: Appendix O - BRD API 581: "Base Resource Document on Risk Based Inspection", presently under the approval process. This approach makes use of the risk as the basic reference to evaluate the intervention priorities. Like in any other traditional discipline devoted to risk analysis, the risk itself ist defined as the product of an event probability and its relevant consequence. The considered event ist meant to be a substance release through the wall containment due to an integrity loss. Therefore the analysis is performed with reference to the bottom and shell tank, considering the consequence evaluation both from the environment and finance points of view. The release probability evaluation is based on the entity of the corrosive damage on the shell and bottom product side and on the corrosion phenomena the bottom-soil interface, as well as on the entity of the atmospheric corrosion phenomena on the external shell surfaces. The target is that to identify the inspection and maintenance priorities, defining the inquiry methodologies and programme, to monitor all corrosion phenomena evolution.
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